Battery disposal campaign starts as cause of East Yorkshire lorry fire revealed as incorrectly disposed vape

The cause of a East Riding of Yorkshire Council waste lorry fire was a suspected lithium-ion battery found in an incorrectly disposed vape, it has been revealed.

The fire took place on Thursday, June 29 at Leven last year, when a waste lorry began billowing black smoke from the waste it had collected that morning.

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service had to cut a large hole into the side of the waste lorry in order to extinguish the fire.

Mark Walsh, station manager in emergency preparedness at Humberside Fire and Rescue, said: “Lithium-ion batteries are found in an increasing number of electrical household items such as mobile phones, children’s toys and toothbrushes and even in disposable electrical items, an issue often unknown to householders.

"Waste fires are preventable, and we support our local authorities advice to residents to use the household waste recycling centres to properly dispose of electrical items and batteries to reduce the risk of fires from starting.

"Even a small fire can soon become dangerous as it quickly spreads to other waste materials, buildings and vehicles, posing a risk to life, property and the environment.”

A new “Stop Battery Fires campaign” from Recycle Your Electricals and the National Fire Chiefs Council is raising awareness of the importance of electricals and battery recycling as new research shows lithium-ion batteries thrown in rubbish bins have led to over 1,200 fires in the waste system in the past 12 months.

A survey of local authorities across the UK has also found that 94% of them said that fires caused by batteries in the waste stream were an increasing challenge.

With the steep rise in the number of portable electrical items containing lithium-ion batteries comes significant fire risk if they are binned instead of being recycled.

With billions of electrical items now containing lithium-ion batteries, Phil Clark from the National Fire Chiefs Council said: “Fires involving the incorrect disposal of lithium-ion batteries are a disaster waiting to happen. Fire services are seeing an increasing number of incidents, but they are preventable by correctly and carefully disposing of electricals.”

Scott Butler, Executive Director of Recycle Your Electricals, wants people to consider the consequences of binning electricals and batteries given that these destructive and costly fires can be easily avoided.

He said: “With more and more products containing lithium-ion batteries, and battery fires on the rise, it's vital that we stop these fires and reduce the air pollution impact that they have on our local communities and the dangers they present to fire fighters and waste officers.

"We are also throwing away some of the most precious materials on the planet which are vital to our economy.

"We are calling on everyone to make sure that they never bin and always recycle their electricals and their batteries. Just search recycle your electricals to find your nearest drop off point.”