The Lithium Liability: Evidence Keeps Piling Up That the Batteries Are Dangerous and Don't Belong Below Our Feet

Yesterday, there was a fire at a battery recycling facility in Fredericktown, Missouri. Here's the full story and below is some drone footage:

The story includes the following:

• Madison County's emergency dispatch service said residents north and northwest of Village Creek Road and Madison 217 needed to evacuate immediately.

• Anyone within the smoke plume, which wind was carrying north of the fire, was urged to shelter in place indoors by closing windows and doors and turning off air conditioning.

• All of Route 72 was shut down from the Highway OO bypass to Lincoln Drive in order to keep the traffic out of the area so firetrucks could shuttle water.

• An attorney for the facility's parent company, Interco, said “You have fires and proximity of fire lithium ion batteries, you have risks of explosion of those batteries, especially those that are new battery material, and that’s what you have here."

• Silvermines General Baptist Church, located at 3874 Highway D, was opening its doors for any evacuees who needed a place to go. The back of the Madison County Health Department at 105 Armory St. was also open to evacuees.

• The 225,000 square-foot recycling facility is one of the largest lithium-ion battery processing facilities in the world, according to its website, with the capacity to process more than 60,000 tons of batteries.

• Lithium-ion batteries are difficult to extinguish, can generate toxic gasses and carry a risk of exploding or reigniting, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

• The Missouri Department of Natural Resources confirmed a crew was heading to the scene to monitor air quality, any potential water runoff exposure and other environmental concerns. DNR said it would consult with local officials on cleanup.

A Facebook post on the subject included the following picture:

It also included numerous comments that ranged from pointing out lithium batteries are widely used in small appliances, including computers and smart phones, to noting these sorts of facilities are being built in numerous places and welcomed by local politicians who want to say they're green. One commenter also noted the following:

Funny thing is that FD’s and Emergency Managers have been warning about this for years now yet a select group of our elected leaders continue to tout its benefits unabashedly as if they’re slinging crack.

Still other commenters suggested the fire shouldn't be politicized as an argument against EVs. That point ignores the issue of scale, though. It's one thing to recognize the wide use of lithium batteries in small appliances, which can be safely thrown out the window, and quite another to be trapped in a vehicle sitting on top of a giant version. Size matters, as they say and we are seeing many, many instances of EVs spontaneously erupting into fires that destroy parking garages and sink ships, to say nothing of killing a man taking an elevator up to his office with his e-bike battery in hand.

Yes, lithium batteries are an obvious liability at scale and ignoring the problem for the sake of green political correctness has got to stop.

#Lithium #Batteries #Recycling #EVs #Fires