Residents of a southeast Missouri town were forced to evacuate their homes when a fire erupted at a nearby battery recycler.
Madison County 911 posted on Facebook around 2 p.m. on behalf of the county sheriff’s office, telling residents north and west of Fredericktown to leave the area.
“If you can see or smell smoke in this area, you need to evacuate!” the post says.
In a separate post later in the afternoon, Madison County 911 and the Fredericktown Fire Department said only residents on Madison County Road 277 needed to evacuate
The county urged other residents to shelter in place. The post said the city of Fredericktown was not affected by the order.
“Close windows, doors and turn off window AC systems,” the post says. “Again, if you see smoke, stay indoors.”
Around 7:45 p.m., an emergency dispatcher told The Independent crews were still fighting the fire.
Critical Mineral Recovery, one of the
world’s largest lithium-ion battery processing facilities, with a hole in its partially-collapsed roof. Smoke billowed from the charred building and a slight glow of remnant fire could be seen inside.
According to the company’s website, the
plant processes electric vehicle and consumer-grade lithium-ion batteries and retrieves valuable metals and minerals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, manganese and aluminum. The recycled materials can be used to build new batteries.
The fire erupted in spite of what the company’s website calls “likely the most sophisticated automated and remote supervised and controlled fire suppression systems in the world.”
“The state-of-the-art fire prevention system is designed to detect fires before they start,” the company’s site says.
“The system covers all areas where battery materials are stored or processed. It is monitored remotely 24/7 employing high-intensity industrial forward-looking infrared…camera technology.”
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Even GM
Following a fire that
broke out yesterday evening at the
GM Factory Zero plant in Michigan and caused a temporary halt in production there, assembly of EVs has resumed at the site this morning as investigations begin.
The blaze was extinguished later last night with no injuries to either GM employees or firefighters,
The Detroit Free Press reports, and the factory’s first shift was able to start working today at their normal time of 6 o’clock in the morning.
The Detroit Fire Department responded to the fire
with a three-alarm call that summoned 18 fire trucks and 60 firefighters to the plant late on Tuesday.
The report indicates the fire took place in and around a loading dock area and that
lithium-ion Ultium battery units awaiting installation in EVs caught fire.
“Much” of the 4.5 million square foot facility was filled with dense, potentially toxic smoke, leading to a full evacuation of all workers. James Harris, the Detroit fire chief, remarked today that the Fire Department is “doing a thorough investigation,” adding that “with the size of the building, we want to make sure this investigation is solid, so we’re still investigating as we speak.”
He also noted
lithium-ion batteries” were involved.
The Detroit Fire Department reported the incident as “an autonomous
electric car fire” and a “battery” fire” releasing toxic smoke from incinerated EV batteries.
Hmm, untruths