What to Do When Lithium Batteries Catch Fire? Safety Prevention Guide Here

Lithium batteries are now widely used in agricultural drones. As summer temperatures continue to rise, lithium batteries have become a significant safety hazard due to their potential to catch fire and cause major accidents. This issue requires our serious attention. Today, we will systematically explain fire prevention and extinguishing measures for drone lithium batteries during storage, transportation, and use.

Causes of Lithium Battery Fires

🔋 Internal Short Circuit: Due to battery abuse, such as overcharging or over-discharging leading to dendrite formation, or impurities and dust during battery production, which can deteriorate and penetrate the separator, creating micro-short circuits. The release of electrical energy causes temperature rise, and the chemical reactions of materials due to temperature rise further expand the short circuit path, forming larger short circuit currents. This cumulative and mutually reinforcing damage leads to thermal runaway.

🔋 External Short Circuit: Prolonged external short circuits generally cause burnout at weak connection points in the circuit and rarely lead to thermal runaway events in batteries.

🔋 External High Temperature: Due to the structural characteristics of lithium batteries, multiple reactions generate significant heat. Separator melting causes internal short circuits, and the release of electrical energy further increases heat production. This cumulative and mutually reinforcing destructive effect results in electrolyte ejection, leading to combustion and fire.

How to Prevent Lithium Battery Fires

✅ Store batteries in a dry, well-ventilated environment, away from open flames or flammable and explosive materials. If conditions permit, place lithium batteries in dedicated fireproof and explosion-proof battery boxes.

✅ Never immerse batteries in water or expose them to fire.

✅ Use dedicated chargers for charging and keep away from high-temperature environments.

✅ Do not use batteries that are damaged, leaking, or severely deformed.

✅ Avoid squeezing, colliding, or short-circuiting batteries to prevent unnecessary losses and safety risks.

✅ Recharge batteries promptly after use to avoid over-discharge from prolonged storage, which can damage the batteries.

How to Extinguish Lithium Battery Fires

📗 Water is the most effective extinguishing method; use water-based fire extinguishers. Before extinguishing, disconnect the power source to avoid electric shock during firefighting. When using a fire extinguisher, stand at the upwind side of the fire point, lift the extinguisher, pull out the safety pin, grip the handle firmly with your right hand, press the lever, and aim at the base of the flames for continuous spraying.

📗 Lithium battery fires can reach temperatures of thousands of degrees, and the thick smoke is toxic. Wear smoke masks and high-temperature-resistant gloves; do not transfer smoking or burning batteries with bare hands.

📗 If the fire is uncontrollable, evacuate immediately and call the fire department at 119 for assistance.