[HN Gopher] Container loaded with discarded lithium batteries ca...
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Container loaded with discarded lithium batteries catches fire
enroute to port
 
Author : harambae
Score  : 91 points
Date   : 2022-03-13 17:04 UTC (5 hours ago)
 
web link (gcaptain.com)
w3m dump (gcaptain.com)
 
| BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote:
| Watch battery fires have taken down a number of aircraft.
 
  | kortilla wrote:
  | "Caused to land safely".
 
    | musha68k wrote:
    | I wonder what percentage of flights do have something like
    | this kit onboard?
    | 
    | https://cellblockfcs.com/libik-dry-fire-suppression-kits-
    | cab...
    | 
    | Also what happens when the fire is only noticed after burning
    | in eg an overhead compartment?
    | 
    | Fire on flight really is a terrible scenario.
 
    | Maursault wrote:
    | Airliners actually have crashed due to lithium battery fires.
    | [1]
    | 
    | [1]
    | https://apnews.com/article/709370476f2645f299beb6c8c66d216b
 
| devwastaken wrote:
| Lithiums are nothing to treat carelessly. Friend of mine had a
| good quality drone battery catch their room on fire. Could not
| put out the battery, had to scoop it and put it outside until it
| stopped. The only reason it didn't burn the house down was due to
| flame retardant materials things are made out of nowadays and
| they caught it fast enough.
| 
| Manufacturing by it's nature has defects, get metal containers
| for your lithium charging and don't cheap out on batteries. If
| you have old lithium batteries from laptops, drones, etc, dispose
| of them at a local transfer station properly. Or at a minimum
| locate them in something metal that has a lid in an area where
| open flame would not readily catch something on fire.
 
  | walrus01 wrote:
  | based on your post, not sure if this was a consumer drone
  | battery like a DJI or similar with its own enclosure, battery
  | charging dock/station, or a DIY hobbyist/quadcopter battery
  | such as you might see if you bought a 6s 4000mAH lipo for a 8"
  | FPV quadcopter.
  | 
  | for the latter, the people I know who build and use such things
  | always charge their batteries in an attended environment in
  | some sort of mostly-fireproof setup. one has a small corner of
  | their tech/hobby workbench that has a few 12" ceramic floor
  | tiles stuck to a box like enclosure open on one side.
  | 
  | since lipos are damaged and degrade if held for long times at
  | 4.2V full state of charge, it's recommended for the health of
  | the battery to only charge it almost immediately before you
  | want to use it. ideally you would do that while nearby and
  | paying attention, not leaving it totally unattended.
  | 
  | example would be something like this
  | 
  | https://chinahobbyline.com/shop/detail/RcCar-22.2V(6S)/CNHLg...
  | 
  | the quality of the battery charger also matters. and be
  | absolutely certain you're using the correct goal float voltage
  | setting, charge rate in amps or C rating, etc.
  | 
  | https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/isdt-products/produ...
  | 
  | i have also heard of people who use a surplus steel ammo can
  | (plentiful and cheap in many parts of the USA) for battery
  | charging and lipo storage.
 
  | markdjacobsen wrote:
  | I have the dubious honor of having burned down three acres of
  | Stanford's Lake Lagunita with a Li Po battery after crashing a
  | drone (this was a soft pack for a DIY drone). We had been
  | meticulous about charging and handling safety, but they still
  | light off like fireworks if punctured. Seven years later, I'm
  | still terrified of these batteries and treat them like
  | explosives.
 
  | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
  | How would you maintain say 1-3 live, powered on laptops and 6-8
  | in cold storage (but still used)?
 
    | jotm wrote:
    | Full metal cabinet preferably away from anything flammable is
    | the simplest solution.
 
      | galangalalgol wrote:
      | For real? Is there anyone who doesnt just leave their
      | laptop on their desk when not in use?
 
  | tomaskafka wrote:
  | My drone/rc plane loving friend has built a concrete box on a
  | garden outside the house to store all the high density
  | batteries there for this very reason.
 
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| > The bill of lading listed "computer parts," not lithium
| batteries, making responding to the fire more challenging.
| 
| > the shipper failed to properly placard, label, mark and package
| the lithium batteries, and identified the cause of fire to be
| residual charge/full circuit, which led to a thermal increase.
 
| pizza wrote:
| Free startup idea: through-the-wall lithium battery sensing, for
| safety checks throughout the supply-chain..
 
  | newsclues wrote:
  | I was thinking rethinking the supply chain to avoid shipping
  | batteries assembled in cars, or having ships designed for
  | lithium battery fires.
 
    | pizza wrote:
    | It looks like the people shipping them will lie about their
    | cargo's contents despite likely knowing their danger
 
| noodlesUK wrote:
| The real crime here was lying on the bill of lading to get around
| shipping restrictions. Lithium batteries do sometimes cause
| fires, and sometimes big ones, but we have some safety mechanisms
| to help with that kind of thing. You can't put any of them in
| place if you lie about what you're shipping
 
| anthropodie wrote:
| I just hope in decades to come I don't see this headline
| 
| "Turns out Li ion batteries are worst than fossil fuels for
| future of Earth"
| 
| Pretty sure over a century ago nobody thought that these Fossil
| fuels are going to screw the Earth so bad.
| 
| Our civilization has come so far but we do have stupid tendency
| to abuse natural resources and let future generations deal with
| consequences.
 
  | jotm wrote:
  | I mean, we need portable energy storage.
  | 
  | Could definitely use better filtering for fossil fuel exhaust.
 
  | rootusrootus wrote:
  | Would the alternative be to go back to fossil fuels? That seems
  | to be the implication of like 9/10 anti-lithium battery
  | comments I see.
 
  | Nasrudith wrote:
  | That is a complete nonsequitor- batteries catch fire and are
  | therefore worse than fossil fuels?
  | 
  | It doesn't make any sense even in worst cases like "elements of
  | batteries somehow spread across the atmosphere like nuclear
  | fallout". Leaded gasoline already did far worse than even large
  | amounts of trace elements dissipated.
 
  | doctor_eval wrote:
  | Oil catches fire too, you know.
 
  | willis936 wrote:
  | >Pretty sure over a century ago nobody thought that these
  | Fossil fuels are going to screw the Earth so bad.
  | 
  | They did.
  | 
  | https://qz.com/817354/scientists-have-been-forecasting-that-...
 
    | anthropodie wrote:
    | Sure scientists do. But we the collective fails to adapt
 
  | fkarg wrote:
  | two thoughts:
  | 
  | - there's people trying to make this case currently
  | 
  | - when we scaled fossil fuels, terraforming was pure science
  | fiction only, not something anyone realistically expected. it
  | only started to become visible some 50 years later.
  | 
  | I don't think we'll make the same mistakes, but there'll always
  | be new and more expensive mistakes to make.
 
    | iseanstevens wrote:
    | Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) is significantly safer in
    | this aspect.
 
      | axiolite wrote:
      | As are NiMH batteries.
 
| [deleted]
 
| lnsru wrote:
| There was a story about ship full of shiny new Volkswagens
| sinking to the bottom of the ocean:
| https://m.slashdot.org/story/396813 Bad source, German newspapers
| had more detailed reports in German. Basically burning ship with
| electric cars can't be saved. That's probably also valid for
| discarded batteries.
 
  | tonyedgecombe wrote:
  | >Basically burning ship with electric cars can't be saved.
  | 
  | The fire was put out and it was being towed to port when it
  | sank in heavy seas. The battery cars may or may not have caused
  | the fire, we just don't know.
 
  | CoastalCoder wrote:
  | Maybe a stupid question, but does a Li-ion battery need to be
  | charged in order to burn like this?
  | 
  | I'm not talking about the batteries that _start_ the fire.
  | Obviously they won 't cause an electrical fire if they're not
  | charged. I'm talking about the other batteries nearby that get
  | heated up by the initial fire.
 
    | Nasrudith wrote:
    | Yes - even Lithium Ion batteries which are practically dead
    | may combust if the pouch is pierced (in pouch based ones of
    | course). I recall vaguely shipping standard operating
    | procedure of around 10% charge for bulk batteries and 50%
    | charge for electronics which contain them but don't quote me
    | on those numbers. But either way more energy means bigger,
    | more, and longer lasting flames.
 
    | philipkglass wrote:
    | Most lithium ion batteries contain mixtures of liquid organic
    | carbonates as electrolytes. They range from moderately to
    | very flammable. Here's some vendor information on dimethyl
    | carbonate, one of the more flammable electrolyte components:
    | 
    | https://smc-global.com/dimethyl-carbonate/
    | 
    | https://smc-global.com/wp-
    | content/uploads/2021/04/M3574_DIME...
    | 
    | These liquids can burn regardless of the battery state of
    | charge.
 
      | ajross wrote:
      | This is true, but pretty badly misstating the risk
      | analysis. Lithium electrolytes are, on the whole,
      | "flammable" in exactly the same way that things like grain
      | shipments are flammable. It's a real risk, and requires
      | engineering to address. They aren't remotely "dangerous"
      | materials.
 
      | userbinator wrote:
      | Incidentally, besides the flammability, the electrolyte is
      | otherwise quite harmless. It's comparable to ether,
      | alcohol, or acetone.
 
        | snovv_crash wrote:
        | There are other components in the battery which are both
        | toxic and corrosive to electronics. Please be careful of
        | any broken batteries and if there is a fire don't breath
        | the fumes!
 
    | luma wrote:
    | They cannot be fully discharged without permanently damaging
    | the cells, so Li-ion batteries are always shipped with some
    | charge.
 
  | lobochrome wrote:
  | Actually most RoRo carriers, once they start to burn sink with
  | the fire being unextinguishable.
  | 
  | Oil, Gas & Tires burn well enough. No batteries needed.
 
    | walrus01 wrote:
    | based on recent mishaps for "pure car carrier" RoRos they
    | seem to have catastrophic failures based on being top-heavy
    | or ballast problems, I can recall at least 3 within the past
    | 20 years that have toppled over on their sides in
    | catastrophic events that are non fire related.
 
| [deleted]
 
| exdsq wrote:
| Yet more evidence that k8s is too complex
 
| walrus01 wrote:
| Should be a criminal act for whoever mis-declared the contents on
| the bill of lading.
 
  | sometimeshuman wrote:
  | From personal experience, someone who orchestrates this sort of
  | crime sets up a fall guy. The person who mis-declared the
  | contents is probably just a pawn. It is surprisingly easy to
  | manipulate young ambitious people, ideally from poor immigrant
  | roots who have been preconditioned to observe a code of
  | silence, if the senior person implies it is a routine business
  | practice. Then they get caught, the fog lifts, and they blame
  | themselves because the prosecutor/investigator has a rock-solid
  | case.
 
    | walrus01 wrote:
    | Google "total reclaim Seattle" for some similar examples
 
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(page generated 2022-03-13 23:00 UTC)