Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse Genoa Twp, MI – Lithium-ion battery fire at UPS distribution center controlled with help from sprinklers; Firefighters extinguish October 20, 2016 viking210 Spontaneous combustion of lithium-ion batteries is the cause of fire damage at the Genoa Township UPS Distribution Center, a fire official said Monday. Deputy Chief Mike Evans of the Brighton Area Fire Department said firefighters responded around 5:50 a.m. Friday to the UPS center at 1212 Fendt Drive, off Grand Oaks Drive, to find “heavy smoke” billowing from the building. “It was a sprinkled building, and the sprinkler activated before we arrived,” Evans explained. “It wasn’t getting to the fire due to an obstruction in the conveyor system. We had to stretch hose line and put the fire out.” Firefighters extinguished the flames in about 20 minutes without injury to UPS employees or firefighters, he noted. Evans said the lithium-ion batteries had been set aside in a box for recycling. The fire damaged several containers and the conveyor belt system. Evans said damage figures are not completed, but preliminary estimates place it at $200,000 for product and the conveyor system as well as a couple of trucks. Howell Area firefighters and Livingston County EMS also were on scene.
