Back on May 15th a fire started in northern San Diego county.
The fire broke out inside the Gateway Energy Storage facility on Paseo de la Fuente Wednesday and took nearly 24 hours for crews to extinguish…“We went into defensive action. We knew this was a battery storage facility. There’s some toxic gases and high heat that are attributed to that, so we called in extra support with the hazmat unit and the bomb squad to give us the extra tools,” Cornette explained.
Then it all reignited.
Four days later…
There was no firm estimate of how much longer the fire might continue.
Maybe water isn’t such a good idea, but water is all they have – millions of gallons of it. Fortunately, the state is not in a drought this year.
"We’re preparing for the worst and making plans to be here for a long time, two to four weeks and will reevaluate then,” said Captain Brent Pascua with Cal Fire San Diego. “You have to put water on it to keep the fire confined, but that water damages the batteries also allowing them to arc starting another fire.”
Blaze at South Korea lithium battery plant kills 22 workers https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/about-20-bodies-found-after-fire-south-korea-battery-plant-yonhap-reports-2024-06-24/
A lithium battery factory in South Korea was set on fire after multiple batteries exploded on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, fire officials said. The fire and a series of explosions ripped through the factory run by primary battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul. The victims likely succumbed to extremely toxic gas within seconds of the blaze getting out of control, the officials said.
Isn’t it great that hydrocarbon production, transportation, storage, refinement, waste product disposal, and byproducts are totally safe. Why would we ever look for any other energy source?
Dr. Bill Thomas used to say that the only safe place for humans is in a six foot box six feet under, or words to that effect.
The 1982 Tacoa fire would have been less deadly had the fire department known how to fight the fire. Instead of letting it burn they triggered a boilover. Apparently the right procedure is to cool the adjacent tanks to protect them.
Among the dead were lots of news reporters who had to get really close to be able to report the fire accurately.