I got lucky.....fire

[drewp]

I had a gun out last night in my gun/hobby room portion of my out building...i broke an ejector recently on it so i had it out for a cleaning and repair.

I left it on the table over night.

Came in after work and saw this at the utility sink


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[drewp]

So i was poking around and look in my guns case and saw it was burnt

Then i saw pieces of battery scattered around.

Looked at the gun and the dang utg flashlight blew up shot the batteries 15' through my gun case (was unzipped) and onto the sink where i had a dried out sponge and a roll of paper towels

Whatever happened inside that flashlight turned it into a projectile and almost cost me so much.

Folks do not attach cheap sh!t onto your gun!!!!

I got so lucky. The only reason the fire didnt get worse was the melting drain plumbing below the sink made holes in the supply lines and sprayed water all over the fire.

I get to clean out the whole shop now...smoke and water everywhere

 

[Just Jim]

Yup lucky. Some time ago I had a surefire light in my pocket while driving and it locked on. That was a hot SOB and can see how they can start a fire.

 

[thorborg]

Man, just when you think you have a handle on things the unexpected slaps you down and sobers you up. I showed this to my wife who immediately decided it must be a black & decker light. We nearly lost our gatherings from a B & D rechargeable vac. The rest of your life, out of the blue, you will come on that same lingering smell and you flash to this exact time.

 

[U201491]

This is what burned our house down in the 80's
Things happen from strange sources.
They like to chew in old wiring and build nests under houses and in attics.

 

[etrain16]

We had a pretty serious fire 2 years ago due to an old exhaust fan in one of our bathrooms. Burned up the bathroom, but the flames were contained there and I was able to put them out with a fire extinguisher before it got out of that room and while my wife was dialing 911. Very scary and traumatizing to our daughter. Always be prepared with at least one extinguisher in your home - it's the second time I've needed one at home.

As for batteries, I've seen them fail by internal short both inside and outside devices. Every so often, you can get a bad one. Thankfully your damage wasn't any worse.

 

[jbett98]

Were the words "Made in China" on the side of the flashlight?

 

[CHLChris]

Yeah, I would bet it was the batteries, not the flashlight. Although maybe something in the light caused a short that heat up catastrophically. It is hard to see that amount of damage as being lucky, but you definitely were.

 

[rick benjamin]

That was a nice flashlight/laser!
Powered by CR123 lithium batteries.
The housing, o-ring sealed aluminum chamber with a plastic nose where LED was housed.
Lithium batteries can short-internally, heat rapidly and burn explosively.
Would have been quite a sight, like a flamethrower.
The gasses released are corrosive
Detail strip all the guns in the room, scrub them down, clean them again (3 times in the next 3 days).
Scrub and clean the cabinets, walls, etc.
Any electronics in your hobby room will fail sooner than later. Expect to replace them.
RC model folks have lost models, vehicles, garages, houses.
FEDEX and UPS have lost cargo jets to burning lithium batteries.

 

[IronMonster]

Yep, like others said I bet it was the battery not the light. A battery is nothing more than chemicals & materials designed to release energy over time, it does not take much of a short for it to release all of that energy at once in the form of heat. Not only that since its contained its pretty close to a miniature pipe bomb. The more hizoot the battery's are the more likely they are to melt down too. A CR123 packs a lot bigger punch than a AA

 

[Flopsweat]

Two is one and one is none. Always have THREE fire extinguishers in your house. Maybe two if it's a small apartment.

 

[IronMonster]

My house has burned down twice (both times before I lived here) I figure the statistical odds of it burning down three times has got to be close to the same as winning the lotto. Old man Murphy is a bastard though, you never can second guess him.

 

[U201491]

I have a good Question.
Lithium Batteries are explosive if shorted out.
The majority of Lithium batteries are made in China.
China is not our friend contrary to the opinion of many.
What happens in an EMP event, when we have a couple
hundred million of those Lithium batteries being shorted out by that EMP.
Essentially this country is full of mini Land and anti personnel mines.
Think about that a little.

 

[IronMonster]

If China is detonating a nuke over Kansas or the sun is kicking out a mega X class CME I think we probably got bigger problems than battery's

Not sure that electromagnetic energy is even capable of shorting a battery. My understanding is the most damage in a severe EMP event will be the itty bitty circuits that have microns between them.

But I am a blacksmith, I hit things with a hammer till they look good. I hardly am qualified to have an opinion.

 

[U201491]

Lithium-ion Battery Life and Death - HowStuffWorks
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/lithium-ion-battery2.htm

If China is detonating a nuke over Kansas or the sun is kicking out a mega X class CME I think we probably got bigger problems than battery's

Not sure that electromagnetic energy is even capable of shorting a battery. My understanding is the most damage in a severe EMP event will be the itty bitty circuits that have microns between them.

But I am a blacksmith, I hit things with a hammer till they look good. I hardly am qualified to have an opinion.

It can sure fry a high tension power line. But yeah bigger problems for sure. The EMP will cover a much larger area than the actual Bomb blast and localized fallout...
Just a curiosity about the batteries. I don't like Lithium batteries as they are made to date.

 

[U201491]

My house has burned down twice (both times before I lived here) I figure the statistical odds of it burning down three times has got to be close to the same as winning the lotto. Old man Murphy is a bastard though, you never can second guess him.

Yeah Murphy is truly that.
I think I eliminated about 2000 squirrels after that. The area I lived had virtually squirrel free nut orchards LOL.

 

[drewp]

So it makes me worry about all the lithium ion batteries i use on all my angle grinders, impacts, saws etc...i probably wont store a tool with a battery attached any more.

 

[Flopsweat]

I have a good Question.
Lithium Batteries are explosive if shorted out.
The majority of Lithium batteries are made in China.
China is not our friend contrary to the opinion of many.
What happens in an EMP event, when we have a couple
hundred million of those Lithium batteries being shorted out by that EMP.
Essentially this country is full of mini Land and anti personnel mines.
Think about that a little.

I doubt it. Just a rough guess (I was an electronics technician a long time ago), I'd say damaging electronics takes a much weaker arch than shorting a battery to the point that it lights on fire. If you think about it, modern electronics run on very little electricity but lithium batteries store a lot of energy. One is necessarily rather fragile and the other quite robust. Please don't consider me an expert on EMP or batteries though.

 

[etrain16]

I have had a few alkaline batteries internally short too - one was a 9V that suddenly got really hot, then just burst open minutes later. More fun with Lithium Ion batteries - when they short (which can happen internally):

 

[BoonDocks36]

I have a good Question.
Lithium Batteries are explosive if shorted out.
The majority of Lithium batteries are made in China.
China is not our friend contrary to the opinion of many.
What happens in an EMP event, when we have a couple
hundred million of those Lithium batteries being shorted out by that EMP.
Essentially this country is full of mini Land and anti personnel mines.
Think about that a little.

Note: there is much difference, between a Lithium 123 & lithium Ion Batteries! I have been studying the Li Ion batteries about 18 months now!!! the 123's are an extremely High Ampacity, compared to Li Ion or Li Poly... which is what was shown in the UTube... the major difference of a Single Li-Ion and a Li Poly is the Container. the chemistry is not all that different, Like comparing 123's to Li-Ion's.

Next, NEVER use water to put out a Lithium Anything Fire!!!!

Baking Soda OR CO2 only!!!!!

It is hard to enter info right now> so I will keep it short...

philip, AKA the MadSighNtist