October 4, 2024: Firefighters in California said on September 27 they had finally extinguished a blaze involving a cargo of lithium ion batteries that had burned for nearly two days.

The blaze began when a truck overturned near the Port of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

A subsequent explosion inside the container of large Li batteries blew one side of the container open, where flames could be seen coming out for many hours, the department said.

Fire chiefs said there were no reports of injuries, but they decided to avoid using water to extinguish the fire to keep from washing hazardous materials into Los Angeles waterways.

“Crews decided to allow them to burn overnight, while monitoring the situation from a safe distance and keeping the public out of the area.”  

On September 27, firefighters devised a plan to relocate the batteries to a vacant rail yard, close to a fire station, to allow the batteries to continue to burn and complete their chemical reactions in a location that would be less impactful on traffic and the Port of Los Angeles operations.

Local authorities including the US Coastguard are investigating the incident.