West Midlands fire chief speaks out on the dangers of lithium-ion batteries following a series of local incidents
Firefighters have fought dozens of blazes involving lithium-ion products including at scrap yards and recycling centres across the West Midlands.
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Between April 2022 and April 2023 West Midlands Fire Service tackled a total of 26 incidents at scrap yards and recycling centres, with recent weeks seeing at least four more incidents across the Black Country including in Smethwick and Aldridge.
The brigade's station commander for investigation and fire prevention Matt Ling explained: "Any lithium battery, be it vapes, scooter or mobile phone batteries, will react if it's damaged and introduced into the general waste systems."
"We have had instances of these types of fires in the West Midlands in recent months. The issue is that when lithium-ion batteries are wrongly recycled, they can suffer damage through piercing or bending, and then they go into what we call thermal runaway, which is a sudden intense heat over a short amount of time.
"Because of where these fires happen, the fire is often surrounded by other flammable materials such as food waste, and cardboard. That is where we have been getting these large fires we have been seeing over the last few months."
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