Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[telemonster]

Doesn't have to be during charging at all.
A small amount of seawater in the battery compartment of a lithium ion light or scooter is very likely to short the battery and lead to a fire.

On my last trip to Utila I flooded one of my cheap lights with Seawater. It was powered by one of the beloved, super cheap low quality 18650 Lithium Ion batteries. It got warm. I held it away from me, just in case it was going to pop and lacked any sort of burst disc. It didn't. Upon opening it -- it looked rusty, nasty, exposed bits but no fire. Just my experience and anything is possible out there.

I also direct shorted one by accident while working to convert a cheap dive light into a 100mw green laser dive thing. It melted the battery some, it smelled bad. No fire.

Scooter battery pack made of many batteries could definitely do some damage though.
Sounds like we should drop one in seawater for science to see what happens?

If you puncture or crush the batteries, that is when the real issues start. Many of the Teslas are in accidents (physical damage) before they go thermonuclear. There are LiIon batteries that have been made that can withstand physical damage without fire, but not as common because cost more.

Generator voltage swings or frequency swings shouldn't hurt small battery chargers. They are switch mode power supplies and shouldn't have problems with wide voltage inputs.

With regard to safety in the future, perhaps it is a good idea to charge them in a container that could withstand heat, nothing combustible and the batteries separated a bit. R/C people I know using large LiPo batteries use gun ammo containers.

I wouldn't freak out over a Sony RX100 battery charging via USB.

The dryer on the other hand...

 

[Still Kicking]

As I recall the "charging stations" at least the ones I used on the Vision were not at a cabinet of shelf but sort of behind the bench seats, in the area between the vertical and horizontal cushions, on fiberglass. All along the edges of the mess. Which is where the plugs were. Someone please correct me if I am wrong here? Hopefully not thinking of another boat

I can't speak to the Conception but I was on it's sister vessel, the Vision, about a year ago. I recall there are a bunch of power strips on a counter next to the soda fountain on the port side of the salon, just aft of the galley. That's where most people were hooking up chargers and phones etc. There are outlets spread out throughout the salon -- including near the bookcase at the rear bulkhead of the salon, starboard of the exit door -- where people could also charge devices and there may have been some below in the bunk room. I don't remember exactly as I didn't use them or look for them.

FWIW last time I was on the Vision I tried to charge a scooter battery and the charger didn't work -- maybe something to do with the voltage from the house batteries/generator?

 

[scubadada]

A picture is worth.......a million words? Wonder if this picture is correct....


View attachment 538565

The emergency hatch in the sleeping quarters does not appear to be shown. I don't recall hearing about an emergency hatch in the shower room.

Edit, sorry, I was way behind Frank, as usual

 

[Wookie]

The emergency hatch in the sleeping quarters does not appear to be shown. I don't recall hearing about an emergency hatch in the shower room.

It’s possible that they didn’t consider the shower room a ‘normally occupied space’. I made that case to the Coast Guard for one of my spaces.

They rejected it.

That’s why I had the $30,000 dollar door.

 

[BlueTrin]

Someone may find these fire tests interesting:

Boat Burn Tests - BoatUS Magazine

 

[scubadada]

It's amazing to me that we can get 80 some pages into a 4 day old accident and false issues like having 02 tanks aboard are still brought up. It would be the same to me if someone came on here and posted "the hatches were locked"

Yeah, it's a lot of pages to go thru, but if one is going to opine as to the cause, shouldn't one educate themselves beforehand?

OK back to the thread

Not even easy to keep up with hour to hour, minute to minute

 

[cerich]

On my last trip to Utila I flooded one of my cheap lights with Seawater. It was powered by one of the beloved, super cheap low quality 18650 Lithium Ion batteries. It got warm. I held it away from me, just in case it was going to pop and lacked any sort of burst disc. It didn't. Upon opening it -- it looked rusty, nasty, exposed bits but no fire. Just my experience and anything is possible out there.

I also direct shorted one by accident while working to convert a cheap dive light into a 100mw green laser dive thing. It melted the battery some, it smelled bad. No fire.

Scooter battery pack made of many batteries could definitely do some damage though.
Sounds like we should drop one in seawater for science to see what happens?

If you puncture or crush the batteries, that is when the real issues start. Many of the Teslas are in accidents (physical damage) before they go thermonuclear. There are LiIon batteries that have been made that can withstand physical damage without fire, but not as common because cost more.

Generator voltage swings or frequency swings shouldn't hurt small battery chargers. They are switch mode power supplies and shouldn't have problems with wide voltage inputs.

With regard to safety in the future, perhaps it is a good idea to charge them in a container that could withstand heat, nothing combustible and the batteries separated a bit. R/C people I know using large LiPo batteries use gun ammo containers.

I wouldn't freak out over a Sony RX100 battery charging via USB.

The dryer on the other hand...

 

[rjack321]

Scooter battery pack made of many batteries could definitely do some damage though.
Sounds like we should drop one in seawater for science to see what happens?

Been done, don't need to do it again
Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

 

[cerich]

Someone may find these fire tests interesting:

Boat Burn Tests - BoatUS Magazine

here is a MUCH better one of a boat closer in size and construction.

In this VERY SHORT video you can see how quickly a vessel can be engulfed

 

[Jay]

for some Li-ion battery fire 101 please head to this thread: How to extinguish a Li-ion battery fire

Despite their name, lithium-ion batteries used in consumer products do not contain any/[near none] actual lithium metal.