La Verne lithium battery storage fire forces evacuations near water district facility
Lithium batteries heating up following fire at La Verne water plant
Evacuation orders are still in place for the neighborhood near the Metropolitan Water District in La Verne after a fire broke out Tuesday. Officials say they are now dealing with temperature spikes in the battery storage unit.
LOS ANGELES - Evacuation orders were issued after a fire broke out at an outdoor lithium battery storage unit near a solar panel field at a Metropolitan Water District facility in La Verne Tuesday.
What we know:
The fire was reported around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 at the facility in the 3200 block of Wheeler Avenue.
According to the La Verne Fire Department, a small explosion occurred in the battery unit which stored lithium batteries.
Hazmat crews were brought in, and fire crews were mainly spraying the area with water to prevent the flames from spreading.
Evacuation orders issued, Hazmat on scene of fire at water treatment plant
As a precaution, La Verne police issued evacuations in the immediate area around the Metropolitan Water District facility.
Metropolitan said the water supply was not affected.
Nearby neighborhoods evacuated
Due to the hazardous nature of lithium batteries, evacuation orders were issued in the areas around the facility. La Verne police said shopping centers along Wheeler north of Foothill Boulevard were evacuated as a precaution.
Shelter-in-place orders were issued for Grace Elementary School and Bonita High School. An evacuation center was established at the La Verne Community Center on 3680 D St.
Fire breaks out at water treatment plant in La Verne
Firefighters are working quickly to contain a fire that broke out Tuesday afternoon at the Metropolitan Water District facility in La Verne. The nearby Grace Elementary School is under a shelter-in-place order, while shopping centers along Wheeler Avenue north of Foothill are being evacuated, according to the La Verne Police Department.
By 2:30 p.m., the fire was mainly out. The fire department said one civilian was injured and taken to a hospital. No additional details were released.
A short time after that, some evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings, while others were reduced to advisories. An evacuation order remained in place in the immediate vicinity of the facility.
Air quality monitoring was showing no sign of dangerous toxins.
An evacuation order for the immediate vicinity of the MWD facility remained in effect Wednesday. That area is bounded by Moreno Avenue to the west, Foothill Boulevard to the north, B Street to the east and Paseo Drive, Winterhaven Drive and Kendrick Drive to the south, according to a statement posted on La Verne's website.
Residents within the area are ordered to remain evacuated until further notice and residents with nowhere to go are encouraged to call the La Verne Police Department Watch Commander at 909-596-1913.
Nearby Grace Elementary School was closed Wednesday and plans to be closed again Thursday.
Spike in temperature on Wednesday
Crews monitored the situation overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. La Verne Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Savage said a second battery storage unit next to the one that burned Tuesday began smoking and making popping sounds due to heat exposure from the original fire. By about 7 a.m. Wednesday, the temperature inside had jumped about 20 degrees to around 90 degrees, Savage said.
La Verne Fire Department Chief Brandon Coatney said cooling measures had resumed as a result.
"We did have a spike in the temperature this morning, so we've initiated cooling measures on the second battery system," he said.
Those cooling measures primarily involved streams of water being sprayed on both battery units.
On Wednesday afternoon, crews again shut off those streams to see if the units had cooled, but temperatures again spiked upward in both units, Coatney said. As a result, crews resumed spraying water on the units.
The Source: Information for this story came from the La Verne Fire Department. A statement was given by the Metropolitan Water District.