Large explosion and fire at French lithium battery warehouse

A large fire and explosion has occurred on Monday at a warehouse containing thousands of lithium battery packs in the city of Rouen, France. At least 100 firefighters and 60 fire engines are reported to have been fighting the fire. 

The fire reportedly began at around 3:50 pm on January 16 at the Bolloré Logistics warehouse at boulevard de l’île aux Oiseaux in the Normandy city of Rouen.

According to the news site TheDeepDive.ca, firefighters on the call reported that the fire first started in a storage area containing lithium batteries. It is estimated around 8,000 lithium batteries have been destroyed. The fire then spread to a nearby storage facility contained about 70,000 rubber tires.

According to EuroWeeklyNews, the fire was the result of an explosion at a facility belonging to Bollore Logistics, and which reportedly contained thousands of lithium batteries. A third fire started during the night at a third storage space on the same site, belonging to the Ziegler company and housing textiles, Reuters reported.

People working in the the facilities were quickly evacuated during Monday night, and no casualties were reported. The prefecture explained that it might take several hours to extinguish the massive fires, but reassured the people that the fumes are not toxic.

By around 0600 on Tuesday that new fire was also contained. Authorities will now attempt to determine the cause of the fire.

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