Switched Batteries Become Burning Problem
New batteries to store electricity suddenly burned in Warwick. They were not the batteries local officials expected.
Big lithium batteries smoldered, ignited, plumed and fumed in Warwick facilities over the last week. Batteries first smoldered at the 28 Church St. facility in the Village of Warwick, bringing Warwick police and fire departments, along with Haz Mat and Convergent Energy and Power staff at 11 p.m. on Monday night, June 26, said Village of Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard. Thunderstorms preceded the alarms, but the cause has not been identified.
“It smelled like an electric fire,” said Warwick Fire Department Chief Michael Contaxis. “I didn’t see a visible flame. It smelled like burned plastic, rubber and wire. It was smoking from some fire suppression event in the battery cabinet. I cut the power and requested Haz Mat. They responded with Convergent Energy and Power. ”
Convergent had provided the battery system for electricity backup, as recommended by Orange and Rockland, until a substation could be built, Newhard said. It had been approved by the Village Board and engineers and installed in the last few months, but the permit had not been finalized, Village Trustee Tom McKnight said.
“At what point did they decide to use another battery provider? They told us they would use GE batteries,” said McKnight. “They’ve been around a long time. These new Centipede batteries lack state and federal safety approval. They weren’t even fully set up. They have alarms but don’t notify authorities. The firehouse was notified because the alarm was audible. The Village Planning Board and engineers approved this based on information we were given.”
The batteries were charging and had reached 20% when the smoldering began, Newhard said. Representatives from the providers, Convergent Energy and Power and Powin Energy responded to the alarms.
Contaxis said he had only done the required training on battery fires during the winter at Orange County Fire Training Center and had read firefighting journal articles and Haz Mat pamphlets about battery fires.
“We also learn from fire departments around New York City,” he said. “You’re only as good as your training.”
However, the training on these large batteries, which store electricity from the grid for backup during high usage times, was not scheduled until July 15, he said. But Contaxis knew that he could not dowse a lithium battery fire with water, as lithium reacts with water to produce highly flammable lithium hydroxide.
“My job is to monitor and protect life and property,” Contaxis said.
Power to the batteries was cut, and he and others stayed about 200 feet from the batteries, he said, and he remained at the site for about two hours. Then representatives from Convergent Energy and Power, the New York City company that provided the batteries, stayed at the scene, Contaxis said, while WFD firefighters remained on call.
In each battery’s cabinet, fire sets off a fire containment foam, said McKnight, so the strategy was to wait for the smoldering to subside.
Then, at 1:26 p.m. on Tuesday, batteries ignited on the leased Warwick Valley School District land near school bus garages, again drawing firefighters, along with state and local police, Orange County Haz Mat Chief Wayne Melton, representatives from Convergent Energy and from Powin, among other emergency experts, some from other states, Contaxis said. Melton gave directions. Contaxis requested drones with thermal imaging to monitor the batteries’ temperature. The batteries on school property had charged to 80%, Newhard said.
“I was in the fence with the others. I got within a couple hundred feet, and I could see there was an event but couldn’t do anything,” said Contaxis.
Until Sunday, July 2, the fire debris was too hot to check. Investigators had to wait for fire remnants to cool to ambient temperature, Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton said.
He pointed out that only the latest generation of Powin batteries, the Centipedes, lined up in a connected structure, had ignited on both school and Village property. Haz Mat air monitors, repeatedly testing the air, declared air contaminants to be within limits of what the Environmental Protection Agency deems safe, so Sweeton said that town officials recommended only that nearby residents stay indoors and keep windows closed. But the school district evacuated their property.
Whether the battery fumes would prove to be innocuous or not, a resident living near the battery facilities, who requested anonymity, said that soon after he arrived home with his daughter early on Tuesday evening, their eyes and throats were burning and his daughter was coughing, although their windows were closed. The two of them, compelled by their physical discomfort, left within an hour of arriving home.
“I could taste the fumes in my mouth. That can’t be good,” the father said. “I’m not okay with what the town did. Almost everyone on my street has school-age children. They weren’t notified, but kids in the school were evacuated.”
He had heard about town evacuation guidance on News 12, but Sweeton said, “That was an error.” No evacuation had been directed, only closing windows and staying inside.
“I have a lot of questions about what happened,” said the resident. “The police officer near the battery site said he’d evacuate if he were in my place but hadn’t heard of evacuation directions. I cut the conversation short to get out.”
The resident expressed concern about those lacking the Warwick Code Alert app if the need to evacuate was broadcast. “What if you’re elderly or don’t have a cell phone?”
Returning two days later, the smell lingered in his house and persisted for several days, he said, but noted, “These battery facilities are not secure. Someone could get in there with a step stool or ladder and mess with things. My hat is off to the police department for putting officers out there 24/7. ”
“We provided perimeter security,” said Warwick Police Chief John Rader. “We responded to the initial incident in the village. We were on site 24 hours a day since Tuesday afternoon. We photographed areas that were damaged. Nothing was taken out.”
At least one officer was always at each site, he said.
However, air quality parameters set by the EPA often result from a compromise between what EPA scientists determine from health data and what corporate lobbyists seek, according to David Brown, an environmental consultant who had been Connecticut Chief of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health and an investigator of Superfund sites for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Corporate threats to sue the EPA for opposition have frequently made resistance unaffordable for the EPA and resulted in compromised health standards, Brown said.
Meanwhile, Contaxis, outside at the battery site, said he was not masked and had no problematic reactions.
On July 3, Convergent had a crane pick up the damaged Village batteries, Newhard said. Batteries on the school site had cooled off and were covered by tarps.
“We need to pinpoint what triggered this. It’ll take weeks,” Sweeton said. “Now the systems are offline and secured. This is emergent technology being pushed by New York State. I’m not sure they’ve done adequate research for dealing with it in the race to electrify. The site in the Village went through their planning board. It went through our engineer and planning board with many questions. But to not have a regulatory agency behind it, like the DEC, gives me pause. Many such storage units are in Canada, but not with the new generation of batteries.”
Only two places in the world are using the Centipedes, McKnight said.
Two firms are investigating the incident, one from Convergent and another from the school district, Sweeton said.
Calls to Convergent’s public relations office were not returned, and neither Convergent nor Powin had representation at the Village Board meeting on Monday night.
“The Convergent and Powin team didn’t show up. It’s not good optics,” said McKnight. We want to talk to them. We have questions. They sent a letter with vague flowery language, saying they were still investigating, to be read by the mayor at the meeting.”
The companies did not send representatives to the July 6 school board meeting either. Newhard recalled a moment at a Village Planning Board meeting when Kerry Boland, from the board, asked Convergent Senior Vice President Becky Koze about the possibility of battery explosions. The batteries had never blown up, Koze said.
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Of COURSE Sweeton blames the state’s environmental efforts. Ridiculous.