BOSTON, Mass. — Lithium-ion batteries kept inside plastic toolboxes started the three-alarm Dorchester fire that took the life of firefighter Robert Bobby Kilduff Jr. this past May, the Boston Fire Department said Wednesday.
Fire Commissioner Rodney Marshall said at a news conference that the batteries went into thermal runaway, a chain reaction in which an overheated cell sets off the cells around it. District Chief Keith Kelly described how one failing cell can create more heat than it can shed, catch fire and then spread from battery to battery.
The fire broke out May 23 at 18 Treadway Road. Kilduff had spent 24 years with the department and was assigned to Rescue Company 2. He fell from the third floor of the burning building and did not survive. A Marine veteran, he followed two earlier generations of his family into firefighting and left behind two children.
Finding the cause does not close the case. The investigation into how Kilduff died is still going on.
Mayor Michelle Wu said the batteries run much of daily life but carry real danger when they are charged or stored the wrong way, and city officials urged residents to use batteries that meet industry standards. The same cells power phones, power tools, e-bikes and scooters.
At City Hall, Councilor Ed Flynn wants a hearing and has filed an order asking the council to look at battery storage, fire prevention and possible rules for e-bikes, scooters and other small electric vehicles. New York and San Francisco already have their own restrictions. No hearing date has been set. Until then, fire officials say the simplest protection is at home: charge and store batteries properly and use ones that meet industry standards.
Section: More Boston MA crime news
Filed under: Boston MA Public Safety News
