A man has been taken to hospital and a HAZMAT emergency warning remains in place after a serious fire at a lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Perth’s south-eastern suburbs. The warning was issued just before 3pm on Sunday for potentially hazardous smoke in the area.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said people in the area should remain inside, out of the smoke or fumes, with doors and windows closed and air conditioners off. The blaze, at Li-ion Energy on Burwash Place, was first spotted by Maddington Fire Station officers at 1:45pm. DFES Incident Controller Leigh Bishop said about 80 tonnes of lithium-ion solid-state batteries were inside the facility.
“Crews entered to try and do an internal attack, and from that point it was quickly understood that that wasn’t going to be able to be achieved,” he said. “So we went to the strategy of an external attack to protect our crews first and foremost, and then to try and contain the fire as best as possible.”
Superintendent Bishop said up to 50 career firefighters worked to contain the blaze on Sunday with support from WA Police, St John Ambulance and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. “The crews have done an incredible job once again in trying conditions in the heat,” he said. “For the next hours, and it will be hours into the night, where crews will be providing protection of the buildings and then just a continued suppression to full extinguishment.”
While the exact cause of the blaze will be investigated, Superintendent Bishop said business owner Justin Manton told him he thought he saw it ignite. “The property owner did advise me that when they saw the fire initiate, it was in the middle of a pallet of batteries,” he said. “They attempted to extinguish [it], but they removed themselves really quickly just due to the fire intensity increasing as it did.”
Mr Manton said the blaze and extensive damage it caused would be hard to recover from. “I think we’ll struggle to get through this one,” Mr Manton said. “We’ve got a lot of the batteries here but most of them are de-energised – they’re about to go on a boat so they’re all stacked up nice and neat to go out. [There’s] well over $7 million in lost goods, and then there’s the building. “We’re a two-year-old business, but we’ve done well so far. These things happen, we’ll just learn from it.”
St John said one man was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital, believed to be suffering from smoke inhalation, while another man was treated at the scene. A thick plume of smoke could be seen billowing with intense flames at the scene on Sunday. The fire is close to the Armadale train line, which was closed on Sunday afternoon between Cannington and Gosnells. Albany Highway has been reopened after it was temporarily closed between River Avenue and Stokely Creek Crossing.
