> Residents and motorists will notice smoke in the area ... There is currently no threat to the community
That's certainly a bold statement. Conventional Li-Ion chemistries are quite toxic.
That's certainly a bold statement. Conventional Li-Ion chemistries are quite toxic.
Concentration makes the poison and the threshold for noticing smoke is very low. Assuming significant distance from a one off event this could be noticeable but effectively harmless right now.
Edit: a second pack is on fire, so we're approaching half a metric ton of HF gas now
Anyway, hydrogen fluoride is nasty but well studied. The 5 minute LC 50 for rats was 5120mg/m3 and at 6 hours of exposure 156mg/m3 is lethal for rats. It demonstrates a rapid fall off in toxicity rather than direct bioaccumulation because the damage is from acidification of water in the lungs. https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/...
Humans exposed to 23mg/m3 notice lung irritation, but short term exposure is considered low risk. By comparison even a short distance from a 2 day fire in 5km/h winds your quickly talking sub 0.1mg/m3. It’s still toxic just not acutely dangerous from lung acidification.
But this is not an enclosed space - it’s a fenced-off high voltage switchyard in a paddock more than a kilometre from the nearest dwelling, and this battery hasn’t instantaneously emitted all its contents all at once. It’s also quite a windy and rainy week, which affects how serious a practical hazard this is. The emergency services have notified [1] people within 10km to keep the windows closed nevertheless.
Many more of good people of Geelong have a gigantic oil refinery on their doorstep[2], which is a far greater concern if you want to get exercised about HF-related accidents[3].
[0] https://www.gnr8nrg.com.au/images/resources/batteries/tesla/... [1] https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/#!/warning/17269/mo... [2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shell+Refinery+Corio,+Cori... [3] https://www.csb.gov/philadelphia-energy-solutions-pes-refine...