Round Rock FD warns of fire risks from charging devices
ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — The Round Rock Fire Department has a warning: Be careful where you’re charging your everyday things. That’s everything from your cell phone to that electric vehicle parked in your garage.
Many people end up charging their cell phones on their bedside table, or worse, in bed next to them. After a recent fire caused by an ion battery, firefighters are warning people to think twice before charging up.
“Because [these batteries] are in everything, all fire departments across the country are starting to see these kinds of problems,” said Round Rock Fire Department Battalion Chief John Collins.
Batteries are igniting inside homes, many times because people are just trying to save some cash.
“A charger that’s cheaper, that you might have found online, didn’t come with your original item, it likely doesn’t have the same resistor requirements that you need, and that’s where our problems can kind of come in,” Collins explained.
Those batteries can be found in everything — smartphones, vape pens, electric cars and bikes.
“All of those have a potential for catastrophic failure at a heat level that your water basically turns it immediately into steam and doesn’t do anything to actually put out the fire,” Collins explained.
It’s something many fire departments do not have special equipment for. However, in Round Rock, some of its fire engines are now equipped with special gloves that can withstand heat up to 2,000 degrees or a giant blanket used to put out an electric vehicle fire.
However, battery fires are something all fire departments are now having to adapt to as technology evolves.
While Collins said many might want to try and take matters into their own hands, he cautioned it can make matters worse — sometimes becoming a deadly mistake.
“I don’t think people realize, fully, the problem a battery has simply from off-gasses,” he said.
That’s why he wants people to be smart about what’s being charged in the first place.
“If at all possible, do not block major exits, your garage, or somewhere else,” Collins said. “You want to be able to charge it somewhere where you can still have access in case of an emergency.”
Collins added many of these fires are prompted by things happening very slowly over time so it’s something most don’t recognize until it’s too late.
