Get the facts on lithium ion batteries

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From cell phones to cars to e-scooters and power tools, lithium ion batteries are everywhere. Local fire crews say they're seeing an increase in fires because of them.

"They are really user-friendly, and for the most part, they're safe," Lt. Brian Wright said. "However, when they go under through some sort of damage or there's some sort of damage to the battery is where it really starts to present an issue."

Wright, with Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, says that damage could be from exposure to heat, mechanical damage, like a puncture or exposure to moisture.

"When the battery goes through that sort of damage, inside of each one of these batteries, there's a series of cells," he said. "It's when these cells have the damage that we tend to see that they go through thermal runaway, they heat up, they cause a problem, they'll off-gas and they'll burst into flames and they'll go on fire."

Brian Kokkila, assistant fire chief, says they recognized these fires were increasing across the country, so they ramped up training, knowing they would also deal with it here in Pittsburgh.

"We worked very closely with our partners in the fire department in New York, and gained a great leg up through that partnership of how we can prepare and respond," Kokkila said.

And that's key, because these batteries are posing new challenges for fire crews.

"One of the tricky things when we're dealing with these batteries is that after the damage, the failure may occur instantly, it may occur within a few minutes, a few hours or even a few days, so we often say that it's like a ticking time bomb. You never know when it's going to go off, or if it's going to go off," Wright said. "So we take a material that's called CellBlock and we utilize a steel drum, we overpack it, and there's a special procedure that all of our hazmat technicians have been trained to do in order to take the lithium ion battery and render it to be safe."

Also, not only can the batteries be the source of the fire, but they can be impacted by fire.

"That dramatically alters the environment that we're sending our firefighters into," said Kokkila. "It's changing the heat stratification. It's generating jetted fire right at low levels where our crews would be working to attack or to search in a fire."

Kokkila says as electric cars gain popularity, that's their next challenge. The bureau is preparing to purchase additional equipment to help crews manage them and keep people safe.

Since lithium ion batteries are in many things around your home, here's what you can do to avoid running into problems:

"Probably one of the most important things is the way that you purchase your batteries. Make sure that you're utilizing UL-approved batteries and chargers," Wright said. "When your iPhone comes with a charger that says use only Apple products, or whatever you buy says use manufacturer's recommended chargers -- that's one of the things that we see, that if you mismatch chargers to batteries, or if you're buying knock-off batteries or cheap replacement batteries, those seem to have a higher tendency of failure versus the original equipment batteries."

Another tip, think about where you're charging these batteries.

"Don't leave them unattended necessarily on the charger. If you have somewhere outside of your home, maybe in a garage with electricity, it's a good idea to charge them outside and don't let them block an exit way," Wright said. "So if you're charging in your front foyer or the front hallway right inside of your apartment and that's your only means of egress or your only way out, then you're essentially putting a hazard in that escape."