The temperature inside a fire-damaged lithium battery storage unit at a Metropolitan Water District facility in La Verne rose to concerning levels Thursday as crews undertook cooling measures and awaited assistance from additional experts.
The unit causing concern is adjacent to an identical one that caught fire on Tuesday, causing around 500 homes to be evacuated.
The original fire broke out around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday in a compact storage unit at the facility at 3201 Wheeler Ave.
La Verne Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Savage said the temperature in the second unit was 116 degrees Thursday morning and that cooling measures were ongoing, but there were no active flames and no smoke was emanating from the battery bank.
So far, air quality monitoring has detected no health hazard, Savage said.
The evacuation orders that remained in place out of an abundance of caution Thursday affected 186 units in a mobile home complex and more than 300 single-family homes east of the incident location, he said.
On Tuesday, there was a small explosion in the first battery unit as crews from the La Verne and Los Angeles County fire departments responded to the scene, Savage said.
Due to the hazardous nature of lithium batteries, which are often left to burn themselves out, fire crews sprayed the area with water to prevent the flames from spreading.
Evacuation orders and warnings were issued in the areas around the facility. La Verne police said shopping centers along Wheeler Avenue north of Foothill Boulevard were also evacuated as a precaution.
By about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, the fire activity had diminished significantly, but a hazard remained, Savage said. One civilian employee at the plant was injured in a trip and fall and taken to a hospital when the first fire broke out, but the injury was not severe, Savage said.
A short time later, some evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings, while others were reduced to advisories for residents to remain alert.
Crews monitored the situation overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Savage said a second battery storage unit adjacent to the one that burned began smoking and making popping sounds Tuesday evening 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.
“It was in the low 70s at midnight,” he said.
La Verne Fire Department Chief Brandon Coatney, speaking at a news conference at fire department headquarters Wednesday morning, said cooling measures had resumed.
“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.
Evacuation orders in the immediate vicinity of the facility remained in place Thursday and are expected to stay in effect until further notice.
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The additional experts will arrive sometime on Thursday to evaluate the battery units and the cause of the fire and offer mitigation options to local crews, according to a statement from the city of La Verne.
The batteries cannot be approached and dismantled until conditions allow. Once the batteries are de-energized and no longer producing heat or hazardous vapors, they will be transported to a hazardous waste unit and the area will be investigated.
Nearby Grace Elementary School was closed Wednesday and was to remain shuttered Thursday. Pelota Park was also closed until further notice.
The fire also prompted the closure of the University of La Verne on Tuesday, but it was reopened on Wednesday.
Overnight parking restrictions will not be enforced throughout the city of La Verne until Friday at 5 a.m. to adjust for evacuated residents staying at other locations in the city.
Both the battery storage unit that caught fire and the one being monitored Thursday are 8 feet wide, 8 feet high and 20 feet long, Savage said.
“The original battery bank, that fire has subsided. There’s no active fire there,” Savage said.
As for the second unit, it was exposed to fire and around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday crews heard pops and saw puffs of smoke and saw that a door jamb had been blown ajar.
“The concern is that behavior is going to continue,” Savage said.
The area under the evacuation order 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.
An emergency shelter was set up at the La Verne Community Center.
The MWD issued a statement saying the fire occurred “at a battery energy storage system near a solar panel field on the northeast side at the La Verne facility, which also houses the Weymouth Water Treatment Plant. The safety of Metropolitan’s water supply is not affected.”
Residents can receive updates from the social media pages of the La Verne fire and police departments or at laverneca.gov/736/METROPOLITAN-WATER-DISTRICT—-SEPTEMBER-.
The MWD is a regional water wholesaler that distributes water to agencies throughout Southern California, serving millions of customers.
Officials said that water remains safe to drink in La Verne and in areas served by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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