Samuel Hervé, that same afternoon on the Gond-Pontouvre site in the light rain before the storm: “On a Sunday, with weather like this, at home, I don’t take my eyes off the surveillance cameras. ” He recalls. ” 1er november [2022, le gigantesque incendie avait mobilisé 70 pompiers NDLR], it had rained, a light rain. » Despite the precautions, procedures and thermal cameras, history has repeated itself and the cause of the disaster, if it is still under investigation, is in little doubt for Samuel Hervé. Lithium-ion electric batteries contained in household appliances.
We don’t wonder if it will catch fire, but when it will catch fire.
It is enough for the integrity of the battery to be corrupted during loading, transport, when tons of material are caught by the grapple. They just need to take on water for a chemical reaction to trigger a violent and sudden fire. Specialists speak of thermal runaway: an uncontrolled reaction. Damage or a short circuit can cause heat and pressure to build up in the battery. The industrial risk is real. On February 19, 2024, 900 tons of lithium batteries burned in a warehouse in Aveyron. The firefighters watered for several days.
Salt water to discharge
Videos circulating on the Internet are chilling. The brilliance of the fire is impressive. Samuel Hervé has seen some of them. “A battery, a broken battery, a little water, it becomes a time bomb.” “It is not a smoldering fire but which can be triggered by devices as innocuous as “puffs”, these disposable cigarettes now banned, electric toothbrushes” explains the director of Sirmet, exhuming a bicycle battery from a barrel of devices embedded in vermiculite, the only refractory stone that allows the batteries to be stabilized.”
“This is also what we find in the latest generation fire extinguishers with aqueous vermiculite dispersion, which acts like a gel,” explains Alain Lassalle. He is a volunteer firefighter in Angoulême, a company trainer, where he warns against battery fires and electrical risks. “These are the ones used by technicians from ACC, the battery manufacturer in Nersac,” he explains. But there too, each station is equipped with a basin of water. “Immersion is the only way to put out the fire.” In Nersac, “the water is salty. This is what allows the battery to discharge faster. Because as long as it is charged, it is active. And when it burns, it generates its own oxygen. Our carbon dioxide extinguishers are not effective.”
The scooter in the living room
Accidents are fortunately infrequent. All the same, “one or two fire outbreaks per month” on the Sirmet site. “I have a competitor in Vienne which burned two months ago. He drew the same conclusions. » But Samuel Hervé, who nevertheless owns an electric car “which never charges at night”, has taken the precaution to the extreme. “At home, my son’s scooter no longer charges in the garage at night, but in the living room when we are there. Same for the mower battery. »And the phones. “You should unplug your laptop in the evening,” he recommends.
Alain Lassalle confirms. “The risk is mechanical or electrical damage, a short circuit, overheating. » He saw a house destroyed because a young girl was playing on her phone. At the beginning of the year, he saw a 16-year-old boy burned on his genitals because his puff caught fire in his pocket. A phone, “we see it swelling. A computer that starts smoking, you have to throw everything away. And quick. The fire is as dazzling as the lithium-ion batteries are efficient, charge quickly and last a long time.” We find them everywhere. “Not long ago, at the Carrefour checkouts in Soyaux, a woman thought it smelled hot. His electric cigarette had made contact, it was starting to heat up in his bag”…
At Sirmet, Samuel Hervé reassures himself by considering the next generation of batteries. “At the sodium ion, they seem more stable.” Easier to collect and sort.
Alain Lassalle is a firefighter and trainer. He emphasizes risk prevention.
Quentin Petit
Electric vehicle, immersion in solution
Automotive professionals are on alert. “It’s a reality,” confirms Thierry Benteyn, director of the Charente branch of Mobilians, the auto professionals’ union. Insurers are increasingly keen to take this into account. Today, we try to store damaged electric vehicles separately until we have a final diagnosis. » And the question could arise of access for electric vehicles to underground car parks. It is during charging that the risk would be greatest. And at accident sites. “It complicates interventions, especially if it is necessary to extricate,” says Alain Lassalle, the firefighter. Each manufacturer has detailed on an app, the red zones, where we cannot cut, because there is energy.”
One test even stunned recycling pros. “They set fire to an electric car, immersed it in water for six months. The fire started again as soon as they came out. » At Sirmet, the dumpster is canary yellow but still empty. A sticker announces the destination “electric vehicle immersion”. “There is hardly any alternative,” says Alain Lassalle. Two or three years ago, a vehicle caught fire on a bridge in a workshop in Champniers. Our extinguishing media, water and foam, were not effective. It took a forklift to immerse the car in a dumpster for two weeks. » In Brie, two weeks ago, an MG SUV caught fire in a garage. “I even recommend that smoke detectors be installed there. »
