Fire at Battery Recycling Plant Damages Storage Facility

A fire at Toxco’s lithium battery recycling facility in British Columbia has destroyed the building where the batteries were stored. In addition to the storage site where the batteries were stored, fire from the site carried over to an adjoing facility where there was some damage done to baled corrugated, as well as possible structural damage to the building itself.

Todd Coy, a spokesman for Toxco, says that while the fire caused some damage, the operational plant was not impacted by the fire, and has begun production. "Operationally, there was no negative impact due to the fire," Coy noted.

The fire occurred on Nov. 7, and occurred inside a storage building at the facility. At the present time the company is going throught he cleanup process, and is assisting fire officials in determining the cause of the fire.

There were no injuries and the fire did not require evacuation of any homes in the area. The fire did not result in any negative impacts to the environment of the surrounding area.

Toxco management and staff are presently on site assisting in the final stages of the response and commencing the initial stages of clean up. The exact cause of the fire is under investigation.

According to several reports, the batteries are stored in earth-covered concrete bunkers and subjected to a cryogenic process that cools the material to minus 198 degrees C to render the chemicals almost inert. The lithium is converted to lithium carbonate and resold.

The company states that it is the only company that currently processes both primary and secondary lithium batteries. The company, which has been in business since 1984, processes between 2-2.5 million pounds of lithium batteries a year.