A lithium battery fire sent toxic gases over Montreal. Are we prepared to face such emergencies?

Residents, chemists and firefighters express concerns about emergency prevention and preparedness after 15,000 kilograms of lithium batteries inside a shipping container caught fire at the Port of Montreal Monday.

“Around 6 p.m., I started to smell something chemical in my home,” says Lia Chauvel, who lives about two kilometers from the port. “Like at 7 o’clock I get a text from the city. I thought it was spam.”

The fire broke out at 2:40 p.m. About two hours later, the city issued a precautionary stay-at-home notice via landline to some nearby residents. A reminder alert was sent at 6:51 p.m.

At 6:53 p.m., the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough posted a warning on Facebook, and the comments section quickly filled with citizens saying they had never been warned or had only seen the post much later.

In the meantime, around 100 people were evacuated from the area near the fire, but no mandatory evacuation order was issued, according to city spokesperson Camille Bégin.

“Residents were free to leave or stay and were offered transportation to a safe location while awaiting confirmation that the fire posed no danger,” she said.

But it’s not just the fire that has experts worried. Lithium battery fires emit dangerous pollutants like hydrogen fluoride and small particles that can enter the lungs, said Jill Baumgartner, a professor of epidemiology at McGill University.

Montreal firefighters were seen wearing self-contained breathing apparatus as they moved through the neighborhood, urging people to shelter in place or leave the area.

Residents, on the other hand, had nothing to cover their eyes, noses and mouths.

Health risks possible, expert says

Exposure to high levels of hydrogen fluoride can cause chemical burns, eye irritation and respiratory distress, Baumgartner said.

Acute exposure can even put you at risk of heart attack or stroke, she said. Health risks depend on the duration of exposure, pollutant concentrations and individual vulnerability.

“Residents living near the fire scene, firefighters and first responders may want to monitor their health over the next week, although the greatest health risks from exposure to pollutants like hydrogen fluoride are likely shortly after exposure,” Baumgartner said.

Quebec has a telephone alert system, but Bégin said the city had no confirmation of imminent danger. The alert system also casts its net too wide, making it a suboptimal solution, she said.

The City has an action plan designed to ensure effective management of emergencies and disruptions by coordinating resources, protecting the population and maintaining essential services in the event of a crisis. This plan has been activated, Bégin said.

She said continued updates were provided by the borough and city, including social media posts, notices and alerts, until the shelter-in-place notice was lifted at 9:30 p.m.

Fire chief worries about future

Martin Guilbault, division chief of the Montreal fire department, said the lithium batteries went into thermal runaway, forcing firefighters to cool the container for hours, aided by a special exercise by their colleagues from the airport.

Guilbault said it was a first in his 32-year career and he suspects it’s not the last large-scale lithium battery fire.

“I would say every fire department on the planet is concerned about it,” he said.

The construction of a $7 billion electric vehicle battery factory is planned on the South Shore of Montreal. And according to the Quebec government’s targets, two million electric vehicles will be on the roads by 2030. Batteries, whether in our pockets, in our bikes or in our cars, are now everywhere.

Eric McCalla, a chemistry professor at McGill University, said this latest incident raises questions about how lithium batteries are stored and transported.

“We’re not used to fighting these fires, so we’re going to have to develop a lot of know-how,” McCalla said.

McCalla said manufacturers and shipping companies take precautions and if a lithium battery catches fire, it’s not supposed to spread to others unless something goes wrong.

“It’s something that doesn’t happen very often, so the regulations haven’t followed,” he said. “But I think we’re starting to see what’s going to happen as we move toward more and more electric vehicles.”

Lobbying for regulatory changes

Randy Narine is among those who have pushed for stricter regulations on the transportation and storage of lithium batteries.

He is an Ontario-based firefighter and lithium-ion researcher with the Canadian Clean Energy Safety and Training Council, an organization dedicated to providing training and research to front-line workers and first responders in the clean energy sector.

“When these things thermally run away, you emit a lot of dangerous chemicals,” Narine said. “We need to understand how to mitigate these chemicals that will protect the general public.”

Seeing the incident unfold in Montreal, he immediately became concerned about the fate of the residents who were breathing the fumes and said they all should have been evacuated. He said people may have minor symptoms but not realize the severity of the damage to their body.

This is why he wants the government to ensure that lithium batteries are stored in a way that prevents the spread of fire.

He wondered what would have happened if the shipping container, filled with lithium batteries, had been loaded onto a truck and driven to downtown Montreal. Internal pressure from the fire could even cause the container to explode, he added.

“It’s the micro-mobility devices that are kept in bulk in a store. It’s the car batteries kept in bulk in a factory. It’s the car batteries shipped in these containers in bulk. Those are the problems,” he said. declared Narine.

There are solutions such as an enclosure that separates each unit to prevent fires from spreading between batteries, but for now he said “there is no standard in the transportation world” .

Although what happened in Montreal is rare, Canada needs proper preventative regulations and emergency response tools to fight these types of fires, he said.

The Order of Chemists of Quebec wants the province to grant it a more important role in prevention.

The Port of Montreal indicated in a press release that it had taken all necessary precautions and had teams in place to respond to emergencies. He is waiting for the impending investigation before making any changes.

In a press release, the Quebec Ministry of Public Security (MSP) says there are federal, provincial and, in some cases, municipal regulations regarding the transport and storage of lithium batteries.

The ministry and the Quebec Firefighters’ Academy have developed initiatives to improve firefighters’ response to lithium-ion battery fires and provide prevention tools to citizens. And fire departments are kept informed of best practices for these types of incidents, the release said.

The government has an all-hazards preparedness plan to support municipalities and encourages a risk management approach for all organisations, it says.

“The MSP is also in contact with standardization organizations to ensure normative monitoring relating to the risks of fire involving this type of battery,” it is specified.