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Not a car battery. > a 13-tonne lithium battery inside a shipping container The other ~99 container battery packs survived.

akdor1154 5y ago
Oh, so only the 1 would be likely to start a massive bushfire if this happened in summer? That makes me feel better.
- bjowen 5y ago
  They’re located in high voltage switchyards, because they basically have to be - and the nearest bushland is separated by a comfortable 20km of pasture. You can read up on Powercor and Augrid’s bushfire mitigation work if you’re having trouble sleeping.
- gruez 5y ago
  Any more likely than a gas/diesel fire? I'd imagine most of the fire risk is at the start, when first responders haven't arrived yet. Once they arrive any wildfire risk is minimal because it can be immediately put out. In that respect there probably isn't a big difference between a gas fire that burns for 1hr and a battery fire that burns for 4 days.
  - akdor1154 5y ago
    As per article, the CFA wasn't able to put it out, and had to just let it burn. If this was in summer then that would be taking resources away from quickly responding to the hundreds of other callouts they get - I'm not super happy with the idea of volunteers spending their time to babysit a chemical fire from equipment that clearly hasn't been designed for local conditions. You're right most of the risk is at the start - my anger is directed at a big U.S. tech company landing Victorian firefighters with a babysitting job.
    - concordDance 5y ago
      If they actually do have many fires to deal with (which I doubt, most firefighting departments don't) then they can just put a barrier around it and leave it. No need to babysit.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - tankenmate 5y ago
        There are a number of points on this that are wrong; a) temperatures in that region can regularly get over 40°C (104°F) during summer, a stray spark or flare up can easily get out of hand b) during bushfire season sometimes as many as 10,000 fire fighters can be deployed (professional as well as part time volunteers) with fires sometimes consuming more than 1 million acres during one season. Most bushfire season fire fighters are very busy; in the 2008-2009 season it lasted from September to March. c) the best way to contain a lithium fire is to keep the temperature down, which means fire fighters on site with hoses for an extended period.
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  I assume they're not putting batteries literally in the middle of bush forests.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
sp332 5y ago
The fire spread to a second pack. You can see in the images that they are laid out in pairs. So two out of 80 burned completely, and we don't know what damage was caused to the others. One at least looks pretty singed.
foepys 5y ago
The bad thing isn't the fire itself. It required multiple fire units to be on site at all times. That's resources you can't use anywhere else for that time.

akdor1154 5y ago

Oh, so only the 1 would be likely to start a massive bushfire if this happened in summer? That makes me feel better.

bjowen 5y ago
They’re located in high voltage switchyards, because they basically have to be - and the nearest bushland is separated by a comfortable 20km of pasture. You can read up on Powercor and Augrid’s bushfire mitigation work if you’re having trouble sleeping.
gruez 5y ago
Any more likely than a gas/diesel fire? I'd imagine most of the fire risk is at the start, when first responders haven't arrived yet. Once they arrive any wildfire risk is minimal because it can be immediately put out. In that respect there probably isn't a big difference between a gas fire that burns for 1hr and a battery fire that burns for 4 days.
- akdor1154 5y ago
  As per article, the CFA wasn't able to put it out, and had to just let it burn. If this was in summer then that would be taking resources away from quickly responding to the hundreds of other callouts they get - I'm not super happy with the idea of volunteers spending their time to babysit a chemical fire from equipment that clearly hasn't been designed for local conditions. You're right most of the risk is at the start - my anger is directed at a big U.S. tech company landing Victorian firefighters with a babysitting job.
  - concordDance 5y ago
    If they actually do have many fires to deal with (which I doubt, most firefighting departments don't) then they can just put a barrier around it and leave it. No need to babysit.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - tankenmate 5y ago
      There are a number of points on this that are wrong; a) temperatures in that region can regularly get over 40°C (104°F) during summer, a stray spark or flare up can easily get out of hand b) during bushfire season sometimes as many as 10,000 fire fighters can be deployed (professional as well as part time volunteers) with fires sometimes consuming more than 1 million acres during one season. Most bushfire season fire fighters are very busy; in the 2008-2009 season it lasted from September to March. c) the best way to contain a lithium fire is to keep the temperature down, which means fire fighters on site with hoses for an extended period.
KptMarchewa 5y ago
I assume they're not putting batteries literally in the middle of bush forests.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

sp332 5y ago

The fire spread to a second pack. You can see in the images that they are laid out in pairs. So two out of 80 burned completely, and we don't know what damage was caused to the others. One at least looks pretty singed.

foepys 5y ago

The bad thing isn't the fire itself. It required multiple fire units to be on site at all times. That's resources you can't use anywhere else for that time.