We may be sounding like a broken record when reporting on lithium batteries, but firefighters had to fight a blaze caused by the dangerous goods risk for over 12 hours at the weekend.
The fire broke out in the small hours of Sunday morning at a distribution centre for mobility scooters, near Braintree in Essex, and required around 50 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus to tackle the blaze.
In an article just last week, we explained how the gases released during lithium battery fires pose a threat of death to first responders if inhaled. They release carbon monoxide, methane, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride.
The fire was eventually brought under control using an aerial ladder platform to pour water from above. The use of water is not to smother the fire, like traditional blazes, but to cool the temperature of the cells over a period of time.
Luckily, noone was hurt in the weekend’s incident, unlike the incidents on two cargo ships in the past few weeks.
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