Lipo Charging Fire

As some of you already know, I had a lipo fire last week while charging and the circumstances of it have made me seriously reconsider my charging procedures.

When at home I always charge just inside my shed door, with the battery sitting on part of a concrete paving slab, I have always felt comfortable with charging lipos, I have been doing it for several years. I always check the charge settings are correct (my chargers also do this) and do not leave the packs unattended. However on Thursday night I did both of the above and still suffered some significant damage and very nearly lost the shed and its contents and would possibly have set the trees alight at the bottom of my garden.

I felt that it was important to get this onto the website so others can learn from my experience, I would hate for anyone else to suffer a similar event.

I was spending the evening preparing to go away to an IMAC event in Wrexham and was due to leave on Friday morning. I had already charged all of my rx and power pack lipos, including 2 x 10 cell 5000mah packs. I then had 3 relatively small 3 cell 2200 packs to charge which I use to power a 12v lamp as I was camping at the comp, these are packs that have all been used many times in foamies and my Impressivo delta. I had already charged 2 of them and put the 3rd one on charge on the same 1c charge setting as I had used for the other 2, so am 100% certain that the setting was correct.

I went into the house to get a glass of water and as I walked back out to the shed I saw and heard a flame shoot out sideways from the pack, the flame was at least 1 ½ to 2 ft long, within seconds of this the flame had subsided and I grabbed the leads to pull the battery outside the shed onto a concrete path about a half meter distance. As I pulled the leads, the battery just came apart into several separate flaming pieces still within the shed. I ran back into the house, grabbed a towel and soaked it in water and laid it over the flaming pieces, this did nothing to extinguish the flames which started to rapidly increase. At this stage I realised that the situation was getting serious, I grabbed our garden hose which fortunately is always kept attached to the outside tap, and doused the flames, this did the job, but by this time the flames were at least a foot high and the heat was intense!

If I had been inside the house I am not sure if I could have put it out as easily.

The attached photos show the resulting damage, enough to end any idea of going to the comp as the heat had removed most of the film at the rear of my IMAC model and melted the plastic canopy hatch. Also the film was mostly removed from my 60” MXS which was hung on the ceiling above and the canopy was destroyed. My plastic bin was part melted and was burning before I got the hose on it, most worrying was the discovery after the event that several aerosol cans of paint on a nearby shelf were bubbled and the lids melted, the though of one of those going up when I was trying to extinguish the fire was frightening.

Other damage, 2 other batteries and balance boards for both of my chargers which were close to the burning battery all ruined, film damage to the MXS wings hung on the wall, other wings were protected by the wing bags. Minor damage to the film on the top of the fuselage of my 104” Extra which had already been repaired. Other various bits as pictured, plus every exposed thing in the shed covered all over in black soot.

I used my Friday off, which was supposed to be for travelling to North Wales, to empty the shed and clean everything as much as possible, it took me all day and I still get black fingers when I go in there to get something.

As a result of this I will NEVER charge a lipo battery inside again, I intend to purchase a fire proof box for future charging. I still can’t get out of my head what the consequences could have been if I hadn’t been able to extinguish the fire when I did, the rate at which it developed was frightening and this was only a relatively small pack compared to others that I regularly use.
I personally know people that have lost a house and a garage due to lipo fires, and after this incident I have heard from 2 others who have also experienced a similar fire, which nearly lost a garage and did lose several models. I have also spoken to several people, some WMAC members, who have admitted charging in their house and leaving the batteries unattended, they have all said never again!

Please everyone learn from this and be extra careful going forward, hopefully no one will have to experience a similar event.

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I went round Jon's on Thursday evening and was stunned by the amount of damage a small 3 cell lipo could do!!

I am one of the ones that used to charge in the house, I used to charge at the bottom of the stairs thinking i could throw them out of the front door if there was an issue, this is clearly not the case and I will never charge indoors again

I know Jon will get it all fixed but still a very sad sight

Very sobering....

Sorry to see all the damage it did, I have to confess to having become a little complacent, dare I say blasé about charging my LiPos, I'm going to have to totally rethink this.

Jon, I'd be grateful to know what you decide with regards to your fire proof box solution for charging. I think I'll get an Ammo case for storage and transporting my LiPos, I've been meaning to do this for a while, and procrastinating any longer is just being silly.

Hi Chris

Still researching boxes, but ammo box seems like a good solution.

I found this video, interesting viewing, it demostrates pretty convincingly that lipo bags are fairly useless on anything but small batteries!

Thanks for posting the video Jon, It seems to me that it's not going to be good whichever method of storage you use if a LiPo goes bad on you but the ammo tins at least aren't going to fall apart.

I ordered two ammo tins this morning while having breakfast, and will sort out an external charging solution. As well as the flames you've got to wonder what toxic fumes are in the smoke.

Rotten luck Jon
My Bantam BC8DX Charger came with temperature probes (which I have never bothered to use or investigate). Would this add any protection against LIPO fires? I.e. do LIPOs get hot before letting go, or do they just Blow ?

Firstly, bad luck, Jon. Time for us all to reconsider our charging regime.

Secondly, JRI, I don't think the temperature probe will help. I'm sure that by the time any temperature rise is detected it will be too late. Also, where would you put the probe? On a six-cell pack (for example) you could attach it to cell 1 or cell 6, but that's no help if cell 3 goes off!