Charging lithium battery starts fire, destroys Bend home

A jump-starter kit equipped with a lithium battery started a fire at a Bend home, causing about $275,000 in damage.

From the outside, the home on Brightwater Drive looks as though nothing much has happened. However, once you step inside, the home is dark and dusty and the air is heavy with the smell of smoke and memories.

The home used to belong to Jill Jones and her two sisters’ parents. After they passed away in 2016, the girls decided to keep the home in the family and rent it out.

One family moved into the home in March. Less than six moths later, in August, NewsChannel 21 followed reports when a fire broke out there.

An investigation by the Bend Fire Department showed the family who lived there left a jump-starter kit plugged in while they left to go float the Deschutes River. The man who lived in the home reportedly buys power bank chargers and sells them.

Fire officials believe the battery either overheated or malfunctioned, and then the carpet caught on fire.

Jones’ parents lived in the home for five years before passing away. She said the cherished memories of her family’s time there makes cleaning up the damage left behind much more painful.

“To come back and to see the devastation, not the light, bright home that they lived in. It’s just heartbreaking,” Jones said Wednesday. “You know, accidents happen, but this shouldn’t have happened.”

To understand how an unattended, charging battery can cause thousands of dollars in damage, one first has to understand how lithium batteries work.

Lithium batteries have two pieces of metal in them. One has a positive charge and the other has a negative charge. A piece of thermoplastic separates the two charges, but if something happens to damage or compromise that plastic, it can cause problems.

“There’s a lot of energy in those lithium batteries,” Bend Deputy Fire Marshal Cindy Kettering said.

Jones said the battery that exploded was an “Energy Vault – Model EV-200” which had 6,000 mAh (milliamp hours).

For comparison, an iPhone 7 has about 2,000 mAh.

“The problem is, if there is some sort of failure, that energy has to go somewhere — and usually it’s going to result in something called thermal runaway,” Kettering said. “(That) means one cell fails, leading to the next cell failing and overheating, and eventually you have a large fire, or even, as happened in this case, an explosion.”

Avoiding lithium batteries completely isn’t a realistic option. They’re in all sorts of devices and appliances: cellphones, laptops, tablets, even gardening tools.

Kettering offered a few tips on safe use of lithium batteries.

Handle your device with care. Try not to drop it and damage the battery. Do not to leave your device in the heat or direct sunlight. Always follow your device manufacturer’s recommendations when it comes to charging and caring for the device. Never leave the device alone while it’s charging, even if you’re going to bed.

Now, Jones suggests property owners cover lithium batteries in their rental agreements.

“It is so important, and we see what these batteries can do from what we’ve seen on TV,” Jones said.

“Whether you’re a renter or a tenant and don’t own your own home, treat it as if it is yours,” she added. “It’s not just an investment property for people. There are stories behind the home that the owner might have.”

Before you get too nervous about using your phone or tablet, Kettering said if we consider the billions of devices out there, the number of fires caused by lithium batteries is actually very small.