A winemaker on the cusp of retirement has told of the “gut-wrenching” moment his cellar door was nearly destroyed in a lithium battery fire.<\/p>\n
Rob Wignall, owner of Wignalls Wines in Albany on Western Australia’s southern coast, is about to close up shop after 45 years.<\/p>\n
He was at his house on the property when the blaze broke out on Thursday afternoon in a shed used as a warehouse for the winery.<\/p>\n
“The house rattled and there was a very, very large number of explosions coming from our property,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I opened the front door and here I am looking at the biggest black smoke ball you’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
“One of the warehouses was completely inundated with 30-metre flames.”<\/p>\n
The fire sparked several explosions, including these wine bottles. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
The resulting blaze sparked a hazmat warning for the surrounding area as fears smoke from the warehouse, which housed fertiliser among other farm supplies, could be harmful.<\/p>\n
Firefighters managed to extinguish the flames, saving the cellar door and one of the warehouses, which had a firewall installed.<\/p>\n
“[The firefighters] have done an incredible job,” Mr Wignall said.<\/p>\n
The shed where the fire began was gutted, destroying tools, machinery and other possessions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The winery has been in the family for decades. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
Mr Wignall said there was only one lithium battery in the shed at the time.<\/p>\n
“I want to be very, very clear on this; the batteries were not in use, the batteries were not on charge,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This cordless screwdriver was [last] used about two or three weeks ago.<\/p>\n
“This little battery has actually started about 10 fires in the warehouse.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The winery once played host to some of Australia’s biggest music acts. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
Battery fires ‘commonly’ started in storage<\/p>\n
Albany Department of Fire and Emergency Services district officer Cameron Famlonga said it was common for lithium batteries to ignite while not on charge.<\/p>\n
“About a third of all the lithium fires that we are investigating, we have found that the batteries weren’t on charge,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s another about a third that were on charge, and the last third, the owners weren’t sure.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The award-winning winemaker is on the cusp of retirement. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
Mr Famlonga said the way lithium batteries could burn once ignited could be particularly destructive in closed spaces.<\/p>\n
“When a lithium ion battery goes into what we call thermal runaway, the explosions can be quite dramatic,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our own testing [shows] some of the contents of the internals of the battery cells themselves being projected about 6 metres away.”<\/p>\n
This means firefighters have multiple, extremely hot ignition points to battle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cameron Famlonga says batteries should be stored in fireproof boxes. (ABC Great Southern: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n
Things you can do now<\/p>\n
Mr Famlonga recommended storing batteries in a metal or fireproof box, away from anything combustible.<\/p>\n
“There are fireproof boxes that you can buy in the thousands of dollars, which for industries you’re highly recommended,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But for the simple homeowner, have a battery stored in a metal box which are purchasable [from most] hardware stores.<\/p>\n
“That won’t completely limit the fire, but what it can do is slow down that rapid response of the battery degrading and sending out those projectiles across the room.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fire has destroyed a “lifetime” of equipment. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
To mitigate the risk while charging, Mr Famlonga said products such as power tools, phones or laptops should be charged on a hard surface and unplugged once fully-charged.<\/p>\n
He said e-rideables should be charged outside.<\/p>\n
He also recommended consumers only buy reputable products and replace damaged batteries or chargers with products from the original manufacturer.<\/p>\n
But there was one thing that mattered the most.<\/p>\n
“The only thing that can really make any difference if you are at home is active smoke alarms in your home,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re recommending nowadays for them to be installed in garages.”<\/p>\n
Winemaker ‘broken’ by loss<\/p>\n
Though the outcome could have been much worse had there not been a firewall in place, Mr Wignall said the damage was still “gut-wrenching”, with a lifetime of tools and equipment lost in the blaze.<\/p>\n
“I’m absolutely broken,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s no other word for it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A winemaker on the cusp of retirement has told of the “gut-wrenching” moment his cellar door was nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29947,89154,64,63,12899,89153,40364,89152,13728,44,89151,45,89150],"class_list":{"0":"post-127465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-albany-news","9":"tag-albany-winery-fire","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-battery-fire","13":"tag-battery-fire-risk","14":"tag-battery-safety","15":"tag-lithium-battery-fires","16":"tag-lithium-ion","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rob-wignall","19":"tag-wa-news","20":"tag-wignalls-wines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}