The expanding trend of rechargable battery powered devices has resulted a wave of fires caused by failures of lithium ion batteries involving everything from mobile phones to electric cars. This trend was examined in depth on Monday night March 13 at Station 85 during a presentation on the subject led by Todd Iaeger from Underwriters Labs. The class was attended by approximately 50 personnel from five local fire departments and two local Emergency Management agencie,. It covered the nature of the hazard and how to handle the threat both from a codes perspective and operational one.

This is an emerging trend in the fire service and many more developments will be seen going forward.