NJ homeowner’s electricity-savings DIY project sets house on fire

🔥 The lithium ion phosphate batteries were in a garage

🔥 It over an hour to extinguish the flames

🔥 The homeowner was using the batteries and a solar panel to generate electricity

EDISON — A homeowner's attempt to save some money on his electric bill backfired Tuesday afternoon when the lithium ion phosphate batteries in his garage caught fire.

Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan said it took firefighters over an hour to put out the flames after the batteries being used as the power source for his a home on Hill Road caught fire in the garage attached to a home.

"He was harvesting electricity, using his own lithium ion phosphate batteries," Bryan told New Jersey 101.5. "They were around his house and some sheds in his yard. He had some solar panels outside of the house. And he was storing some of the batteries in the garage."

A hazardous materials unit also responded to the fire.

Bryan said the homeowner had wires and cables running underground. The homeowner was not charged and firefighters kept the fire confined to the house.

ALSO READ: NJ car thieves just 15 and 17 sideswipe police before crashing

Lithium batteries hard to extinguish

Lithium batteries, especially large ones used by vehicles, can be extremely difficult for firefighters to extinguish using normal means.

A lithium battery left outside in the heat and sun nearly caused a house fire in Toms River in June. The Toms River Bureau of Fire Prevention said the homeowner had the battery pack outside, and with exposure to the sun. Officials said the battery pack was not recently used, and it’s the battery that came with the bike.

In June 2023 lithium batteries were blamed for a fire that damaged seven trailers and trucks at the UPS facility in Lakewood.

New Jersey State Fire Marshal Richard Mikutsky, who is also the director of the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety, says there is concern about electric vehicle fires “mostly because of the way these cars burn, the lithium battery packs, they burn extremely hot.”

Mikutsky said a regular gasoline-powered car fire can be extinguished with 600 to 700 gallons of water, but in some situations, an EV car fire will require as much as 30,000 gallons of water.

Photos courtesy Middlesex County Fire Buffs

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom