Heather Wright/The Independent

A lithium ion battery on a power tool caused a fire at a Wyoming commercial building.

Saturday, around 10:15 am, a passerby noticed smoke coming from an historic building under renovation at the corner of Broadway and Main Street. Wyoming firefighters, whose station is directly behind the building, were able to knock down the fire quickly according to Chief Will Davidson.

The damage was confined to one of the units in the building and no one was there when the fire broke out.

Davidson says the fire started from a lithium ion power pack possibly from a power tool that had been left in the building.

The chief says lithium batteries are becoming a big problem. Many people don’t realize that dropping the battery packs can lead to fires, he says.

“Maybe somebody drops one or something, there’s a potential that that the anode and cathode get slightly damaged or compressed into each other, and then it starts to short circuit; that’s becoming common. And then it gets into what we call thermal runaway, where it heats up, heats up and heats up, and then it has a thermal event, which is looks like fireworks going off when it finally goes, which then causes other batteries in the area to go because they heat up,” he says.

“They do burn very, very hot, but the event of the battery burning is going to be fairly quick. It’s just that it burns so hot it’s going to catch other things on fire in the area, so right away, it’s dangerous.”

Davidson says where possible, lithium-ion batteries should be kept away from places where people
sleep. Damaged batteries can be disposed of at an electronic waste disposal site like the electronics bin at the public works yard in Reeces Corners.

The fire department did not release a damage estimate.