A fire tore through a high rise apartment building in Etobicoke early Wednesday morning, and Toronto Fire says lithium ion batteries were once again involved. Crews were called in the early hours to the building, which was formerly a hotel and now operates as a city run shelter, and worked to bring the blaze under control. The incident quickly drew attention as the latest in a run of battery linked fires in the city.
According to authorities, the fire involved lithium ion batteries along with power tools, e-bikes and e-scooters. Firefighters reported finding burned batteries inside the room where the fire is believed to have started. At this stage, it is not clear whether the batteries were the actual source of the blaze or how much they contributed to it, and officials say the cause remains under investigation.
Despite the scare, there were no reported injuries. Toronto Fire credited the building's sprinkler system with helping to bring the fire down. Officials said the flames were contained to the unit where they broke out and did not spread to any neighbouring units, sparing the rest of the shelter from wider damage.
The Etobicoke fire marked the second day in a row that lithium ion batteries had been linked to a blaze in Toronto. That back to back pattern has added to growing concern within the fire service about the devices that power e-bikes, e-scooters and similar equipment, which are turning up more and more often at the scene of residential fires.
It came just one day after a fire at a St. Jamestown high rise that sent four people, including two children, to hospital. In that case, Toronto Fire said e-bike batteries had accelerated the flames, driving up the intensity of the fire and the toxic smoke that residents were exposed to.
The repeated incidents have prompted the city's fire chief to sound the alarm. Speaking on Metro Morning, he described lithium ion batteries as the single greatest public fire safety risk the department is facing. He added that even when the batteries are not the direct cause of a fire, their involvement once flames take hold makes the work of firefighters considerably more difficult.
The chief pointed to a sharp rise in these incidents, with battery related fires up about 35 per cent compared with last year, and said improper disposal, charging and storage of the batteries are at the heart of the problem. He explained that the batteries can go into thermal runaway and drive the unit of origin to flashover in less than 90 seconds, while producing hazardous smoke that is difficult to clean from firefighters' protective equipment and carries a cancer risk. It is part of the reason the service is pushing for tighter regulation of the devices.