Nine fire departments and other emergency agencies helped the Marseilles Fire Department put out the battery fire south of the city Monday. Fire Chief Dave Parrot says there are about 720 lithium iron phosphate batteries in each of 18 storage units. One of those containers caught fire. Invenergy Communications Manager Donya Mansoubi says, “The battery system helps balance momentary differences between electricity demand and supply within the grid. It can instantaneously absorb energy when demand is down and discharge energy when demand goes up.”
Parrot says the battery materials are different than what burned in Morris last month, which caused thousands of people to need shelter away from their homes for several days. Fire fighters were able to use water on the Invenergy batteries, but not on the Superior Batteries site. Parrot says the lithium iron phosphate batteries at Invenergy’s location could take water, but the lithium ion metal batteries in Morris would have exploded.
Parrot says the fire started about 9:40am Monday and was out by 10pm.
Clarification: This story has been updated with Invenergy’s description of what the batteries are for. The company also generates solar power at the site.