Fargo Fire Department is highlighting the importance of proper use and disposal of lithium-ion batteries

As part of the nationwide Fire Prevention Safety week, fire departments are using the campaign 'Charge into Fire Safety'

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Buy, Charge, and Recycle. These are the three key words from this year’s Fire Prevention Week. With this year’s campaign titled, Charge into Fire Safety.

“What the campaign is talking about this year is if you’re buying batteries, to make sure you’re buying listed batteries. So UL listed, or sometimes they’ll say ETL listed. And that’s when we’re charging them to make sure we’re using the charging cable with the system that came with the battery. That’ll make sure it doesn’t overcharge. And that we’re doing that in an area that’s not going to build up heat,” said Ryan Erickson, Fire Marshal for Fargo Fire Department.

Nationally, the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries overheating and not being used properly has increased. And locally, there have been similar cases.

“What we’ve seen from fires involving these batteries is that it’s been kind of a combination of trying to use a battery in a way that it wasn’t supposed to be used or modifying it slightly. Or we’ve also seen where the charging system has been modified in order to charge the battery in a different way,” said Erickson.

Items like phones, laptops, e-bikes, electric vehicles, and others are ones that contain these batteries. As a commonly used item, Erickson hopes people are able to take away the importance of using them properly.

“Lithium-ion batteries are in our lives now. They’re in our house where we live, so we just want to be mindful that we’re using them safely because we know we can. They’re in lots of devices, so just continue to use them safely so that we don’t have any issues causing a fire in our house,” said Erickson.

The Fargo Fire Departments plan to visit several classrooms throughout the Fargo Public School District to share the importance of this campaign.