A garage fire in North York on Wednesday afternoon is the fourth incident in just over 24 hours that involved lithium-ion batteries, according to Toronto Fire Services (TFS). Around 4 p.m., TFS said crews were called to a house on Anthony Road, east of the Wilson Avenue and Keele Street area, for reports of thick smoke and visible flames. When they arrived, crews encountered a fully involved garage, TFS said, noting that the fire spread to the main house. Two people were assessed for smoke inhalation, but no one was transported to the hospital. The fire was later knocked down. TFS confirmed that lithium-ion batteries were involved in the fire. The circumstances surrounding the fire are unknown. On Wednesday morning, three people were injured in a separate blaze, which broke out shortly before 6 a.m. at a building on George Street, near Dundas and Jarvis streets. The fire, which also involved lithium-ion batteries, was subsequently knocked down. Three people were hospitalized, including one who suffered burns and two others who were treated for smoke inhalation. Speaking to CP24 on Wednesday morning, Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessop said the unit of origin had upwards of 10 e-bikes and mobile devices inside. In total four fires in just over 24 hours involving lithium-ion batteries, including a blaze in Etobicoke and another that destroyed a home in Scarborough on Tuesday. ‘Evolving fire safety risk’ “We need regulatory changes... the batteries that are sold in Canada are not regulated, and they are not required to meet a standard,” he said. “They are the primary reason why we have seen a well over 200 per cent increase in fires in the last number of years.” He called the battery fires the “greatest evolving fire safety risk in Canada’s largest city.” Jessop noted that they have seen batteries previously involved in fires that were safely stored by Toronto Fire reignite six to eight weeks later. “The biggest thing that the City of Toronto has been asking for, and we will continue to ask for, is we need the federal government to come to the table to work collaboratively with us, and we need the Fire Marshal’s Office of Ontario to work with us to look at potential amendments to the fire code,” he said. Jessop said that fires related to lithium-ion batteries are posing additional health risks to firefighters. “The risks from the carcinogens and the exposure to the firefighters is a lot different than in what we would deem normal house fires. To the point where we now are looking at new technologies and how to actually clean the bunker gear, because the normal way of using our extractors is not removing the carcinogens in the heavy metals,” he said. “We know these devices are not going anywhere. We’re not calling for a ban, but what we are calling for is both the federal government and the provincial government to work collaboratively with us to limit the probability and the consequence of these fires.”
