Third battery fire at the same site in Germany

A group of batteries has caught fire at Suncycle, a solar and storage service company located in the German state of Thuringia. The fire marks the third time in two months that fire services were called to the site for a lithium battery fire on Sunday, August 11. Police again suspect a technical defect as the cause of the fires.

“The batteries were intended for disposal and were temporarily stored,” Suncylce managing director, Christian Straub, told pv magazine. “We work with several manufacturers, so unfortunately I cannot provide more precise information.” Unlike the incidents in June, the new fire only affected a group of batteries, but not a container. “Therefore, the damage was significantly smaller,” Straub continued.

The attending fire brigade said fumes and smoke slightly injured an employee, via its Facebook page. A report from the German press agency dpa stated that the injured employee used a forklift to drive the burning storage unit out of the area where they were stored to prevent flames from spreading. According to the fire department, the damage is estimated at 30,000 euros.

Due to the heavy smoke, a warning was issued for residents to keep windows and doors closed, which remained in place until Monday.

This is the third fire involving a battery storage unit stored at Suncycle since June 7th. The first time, the damage was estimated at around 700,000 euro, and similar toxic air warnings were also issued to residents.

The second fire was a battery container that went up in flames on June 30th. The fire department said it allowed it to burn down in a controlled manner. The water and the burning storage unit produced toxic hydrofluoric acid during the first firefighting operation. The fire department, therefore, had to dispose of the extinguishing water at great expense and decided to allow the subsequent fire to burn down in a controlled manner. No information was given on the extent of the damage caused by the second fire, and details of the third fire are only expected in due course.