The large battery fire that started at Moorabool on Friday has been brought under control.
Update at 2.30pm on 3 August, 2021:
Fire investigators are attending the scene today to begin investigating the cause.
Firefighters remain on scene as a precaution and will continue taking regular thermal temperature readings to monitor damaged units.
Update at 5.00pm on 2 August, 2021:
The Moorabool incident was declared under control at 3.05pm on Monday 2 August.
Firefighters have successfully completed the operation of opening all doors to the container of the battery, with no sign of fire.
A smaller number of firefighters and fire trucks from CFA will remain on scene for the next 24 hours as a precaution in case of reignition. They will continue taking thermal temperature readings two-hourly to monitor damaged units.
Update at 09.30am on 2 August, 2021:
The fire has subsided significantly but is not yet under control. Crews have remained on scene overnight and continue thermal temperature checks to see how much heat remains internally behind the doors.
Original article:
Firefighters remain at the scene of a large battery fire at an electricity storage facility near Moorabool.
More than 30 fire trucks and support vehicles and about 150 firefighters from CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria responded to the incident, which started about 10.30am on Friday morning.
They found a 13-tonne lithium battery inside a shipping container was fully involved and crews wearing breathing apparatus worked to contain the fire and stop it spreading to nearby batteries.
An Advice Warning was issued at 18.36pm on Sunday 1 August for Bell Post Hill, Lovely Banks, and Moorabool.
This was downgraded from an initial Watch and Act Warning for toxic smoke that was issued on Friday.
FRV initially led the response to the incident, with CFA taking control of the incident at 3.30pm. The two agencies worked in support of one another throughout the incident, and were also supported by Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and the EPA.
A scientific officer was on scene conducting atmospheric monitoring, while FRV’s specialist RPAS (drones) unit was also deployed.
CFA Incident Controller and District 7 Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Ian Beswicke praised the multi-agency response to the “challenging situation”.
“We’ve had lots of specialists on site…all that expertise helps us come up with some really good decisions about what we need to do to respond to these types of fires,” he said.
“There was one battery pack on fire to start with, but it did spread to a second pack that was very close to it.
“The plan is that we keep it cool on the outside and protect the exposures so it doesn’t cause any issues for any of the other components in the power station.
The cause is undetermined and will be investigated once it is safe to do so.
then24.com
