Fire Prevention Week runs October 4 through 10, and the National Fire Protection Association has built this year's campaign around one hazard: lithium-ion batteries. The theme is "Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging Is a Superpower," and it covers the batteries in phones, laptops, power tools, e-bikes and scooters.
That might look like an odd topic for a climate organization. It isn't. Two weeks ago we wrote that Climate Week's push toward electrification is mostly a question of physically installing things in buildings. A lot of what gets installed, and a lot of what people buy to get around without a car, runs on lithium-ion cells. More of them are coming into more homes every year. Handling them safely is part of the transition, not a footnote to it.
Why these batteries need care
Lithium-ion cells store a lot of energy in a small space, which is exactly why they made electric bikes and cordless tools practical. The same density means a damaged or badly charged cell can overheat. Once one does, it can spread heat to the cells around it and produce a fire that is hard to put out.
Most of the time nothing goes wrong. The aim is not to make anyone nervous about the phone in their pocket. It is to make sure the habits around charging and storage catch up with how many of these batteries are now in a typical home.
The charging habits that matter
Fire services and the NFPA keep returning to the same few practices:
- Use the charger made for the device. Cheap replacement chargers and mismatched cables are a common cause of trouble.
- Buy devices and batteries tested by a recognized lab. Look for a safety certification mark, particularly for e-bikes and scooters.
- Charge on a hard surface, not on a bed, sofa or under a pillow, where heat cannot escape.
- Don't leave large batteries charging unattended for long stretches, and avoid charging e-bikes and scooters overnight in a bedroom.
- Keep them out of escape routes. An e-bike parked in a hallway or by the only exit is a problem if anything goes wrong.
- Stop using a battery that is swollen, hot, leaking, or making noise, and don't try to repair it yourself.
The part nobody thinks about: the bin
This is where the environmental side comes in most directly. Lithium-ion batteries do not belong in household trash or curbside recycling. The EPA is clear on this. Batteries thrown out with ordinary waste get crushed in garbage trucks and at recycling facilities, and that is a known cause of fires that put workers at risk and damage equipment.
The EPA's guidance for households is simple:
- Take used batteries to a battery or electronics recycler, or a household hazardous waste drop-off. Many hardware and electronics stores take them back.
- Tape over the terminals with non-conductive tape (electrical tape works best) or bag each battery separately before you drop it off, so the contacts can't touch.
- Leave batteries in the device if they can't be removed easily, and recycle the whole device as electronics.
Recycling also recovers the lithium, cobalt and nickel inside, which are some of the hardest materials to source for the clean-energy transition. A battery in a landfill is a fire risk now and a lost resource later.
Where this fits
Prevention has been the thread running through our posts all season, from a wildfire season at the top of the national preparedness scale to a hurricane forecast that tells you little about your own street. This is the household-scale version. The large-scale fixes depend on policy. These depend on how a few devices get plugged in and thrown away.
This week
Two things worth doing before Saturday. Look at where the largest battery in your home charges, usually an e-bike, scooter or power-tool pack, and move it off anything soft and out of the way of an exit if it's there. Then gather the dead batteries sitting in a drawer, tape their terminals, and find your nearest drop-off.
