Dogs watch as fire takes hold of family home caused by one of them chewing a lithium battery charger. Photo from Tulsa Fire Department.
Firefighters at the house devastated by a fire caused by a dog chewing a lithium battery charger. Photo from Tulsa Fire Department.
An AvSax lithium battery fire mitigation bag
A house has been badly damaged by a dog chewing a lithium battery charger.
A monitoring camera inside the house shows the mischievous pet discovering the charger and carefully carrying into the lounge so he can chew it in comfort on his dog mattress.
But as he bites into it he punctures the battery, causing it to go into what’s known as thermal runaway with the battery igniting, burning with fierce intensity and causing the blaze to quickly spread.
Within a minute the fire takes a firm hold and badly damages the house. The dog and two others in the house fled through a back door before firefighters arrived at the family home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa Fire Department public information officer Andy Little described lithium battery fires as “a critical issue which has been affecting fire departments across the United States.”
He urged people to keep lithium batteries and all personal electronic devices powered by them such as mobile phones, laptops, iPads, vapes and earphones well away from pets so they can’t get hold of them to chew.
Fire caused by lithium batteries are also becoming a major problem in the UK too, leading to serious and, sadly, sometimes fatal house fires.
Andy said: “The outcome in Tulsa could have been much worse if there had been no means of escape or if the family was asleep at the time.
“Lithium ion batteries are known for storing a significant amount of energy in a compact space but when this energy is released uncontrollably it can generate heat, produce flammable and toxic gases and even lead to explosions.”
But what happens if a fire like this breaks out on a passenger plane? After all, on each flight passengers bring hundreds of personal electronic devices on board.
It can and does happen, ever more regularly.
There have been 485 verified lithium battery incidents on aircraft recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration in the USA from March 2006 to April 2024 but figures have rocketed in recent years and have been running at an average around one a week since 2017.
These figures are just for the USA which suggests hundreds more incidents have happened elsewhere in the world but have never been reported. No other regulatory authority releases lithium battery incident figures, including the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK.
This potential danger is why more than 100 airline companies worldwide – including some of the biggest names in the industry – carry AvSax lithium battery fire mitigation bags designed in the UK where they won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for their innovation, the highest accolade any business can get.
AvSax, devised by Environmental Defence Systems Ltd based in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, are now on board around 16,750 aircraft globally and have been deployed in action dozens of times.
To find out how they work and for more information go to www.avsax.com
