SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Quinn Gonder has lost track of how many times he's seen it happen: fires sparked inside piles of trash by lithium ion batteries.
"Hard to count," said the solid waste employee. "They uptick in the summer but it's a constant threat."
They can be smaller than a quarter, but they've become a huge problem in Spokane County. Firefighters and solid waste management leaders, along with Spokane County and city employees, have joined together on a new initiative called Battery Smart Spokane to prevent these dangerous fires.
A new website offers tips on how to safely buy, charge, store and toss batteries.
"I can think of at least six in the last three years," said Spokane Fire Department fire marshal Lance Dahl of fires sparked by the batteries.
Last year, a charging lithium battery was blamed for starting a fire at a Pullman apartment.
A 2022 fire at Ballard Golf Cars and Power Sports in Hayden is also believed to have started the same way.
Five years ago, a Spokane Valley Lime scooter warehouse burned. In June, an e-bike battery caused the loss of a Coeur d'Alene Police building.
Dahl says these fires burn hotter and faster because the batteries generate their own oxygen.
"They may even explode and they'll launch themselves across a room," he said.
Assistant fire marshal for Spokane Valley FD Bill Clifford said this danger is combined with higher rates of plastics used in furnishings and building materials.
"So we may have had several minutes in the past to escape a fire. Today's rate we have seconds to minutes," he explained.
For Gonder, being battery smart is about saving his livelihood and maybe his life. The smoke from burning lithium batteries, along with any runoff from fighting the fires with water, contains toxic chemicals.
"It's a matter of safety, [a] matter of life and death at times with folks or loss of an actual regional facility," he said.
The big takeaway from the campaign launch Tuesday: don't toss lithium ion batteries or any electronic devices with the batteries inside. Instead, drop them off at any transfer station.
"They can get dropped off, anyone in a hi-vis or hard hat can help them isolate those batteries and get them prepared for shipment to properly dispose of," Gonder said.