Lithium ion fires pose greater challenge for firefighters, expert says Boston 25 News [Video]

QUINCY, Mass. — It is called “thermal runaway” and it’s what happens when a lithium ion battery is damaged or overheated. And it can have devastating consequences.

“Thermal runaway is when that one battery cell heats up, it spreads to its adjacent cells. and it’s really hard to stop,” said Brian O’Connor, senior fire protection engineer at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy. “Each one of those battery cells contains a lot of energy.”

So much energy that lithium ion batteries can explode into flames.

“If it starts in the center, the perimeter gets bigger and bigger,” O’Connor said. “And it’s very hard to disrupt.”

That’s primarily because of proximity. Lithium ion batteries are usually packed together in a protected space — to keep them from getting damaged.

Lithium ion batteries first came on the market in the 1990s. But their developmental path goes back more than 50 years, …