The town of Trial, about 600km east of Vancouver, was rocked five days ago by a series of explosions and a fire at a lithium storage building.
Five fire departments from surrounding communities responded to the fire which took place at Toxco Inc, one of the most diverse battery recycling companies in operation. As water cannot be used for lithium based fires due to the reactive nature of lithium and water, the fire departments used foam to control the blaze with more than half a million litres of water then needed to mitigate the fire after it spread beyond the source to adjoining property, forcing a nearby highway to be temporarily shut down.
Much of the lithium material that Toxco accepts is stored in earth-covered concrete bunkers, but the fire started in a conventional building that is approved for lithium storage. It was the home to both lithium-ion and primary lithium cell material; with the latter used in military applications and considered to be more volatile.
During the blaze, the British Columbia Ministry of Air Quality monitored sulphur dioxide levels at two nearby locations and found that they remained at acceptable levels.
The fire-fighters responding to the blaze let the fire burn for four-five hours within a contained perimeter before moving in to extinguish the flames. Both Toxco and Regional Kootenay fire officials believe an internal short in one of the batteries stored in the building is likely to be the root cause, although the incident is still under investigation.
