Chaumont battery fire tested strength of firefighters

Aug. 14—CHAUMONT — It was just another muggy summer afternoon, with scattered showers and a promise to clear off for a nice sunset on July 27 when a call came in to Jefferson County Dispatch about a small structure fire near a solar farm off Route 179.

Volunteer firefighters from around Jefferson County were working their regular jobs, just carrying on with their lives at 1:12 p.m. when inside a trailer something caused a lithium battery, installed there to store electricity generated from the sun, combusted. And while seeing the growth of sprawling solar panels has been a common occurrence throughout the north country, it didn't occur to nearly anyone at first that the response would turn out to be different from any seen before.

By the time it was over, six days, three hours and thirty minutes had passed — nearly a week. And two words, lithium battery, were on everyone's mind.

Chaumont Chief Will Lipczynski said he was at a Veterans Administration appointment when he heard the call. He recalled seeing construction equipment in the area of the reported fire, so thought it must be an equipment fire.

He did not know it was a part of the solar plant itself that was ablaze until firefighters from Three Mile Bay arrived first.

"I knew it was going to be a big deal, but I didn't realize it was going to be a big deal like this," the chief said. "Things went from not so good to real bad real quick out there."

Now that the fire has been out for more than a week, Lipczynski took time to reflect on the initial response, and the days that followed as lithium batteries burned away in four trailers.

The chief said his first indicator that a prolonged response would be required was when he spoke with solar company officials on the phone, and they asked if Chaumont had a hazmat team. The chief responded affirmative, and the solar officials said to get them to the fire quickly.

He then asked if they need to do a shelter in place, and that's when the shelter in place started as smoke wafted through the area. Residents were told to stay inside, and traffic was diverted from miles around.

Nick Birchenough, a Chaumont Fire Department captain was working construction on an island in Clayton when the call came in. After a few hours went by his cousin who works for Fort Drum's fire department asked Birchenough if he knew why they were on standby with their hazmat team.

He ended up contacting a member of the Chaumont Fire Department who described to him what was going on and he left the island and went to the site.

"It wasn't anything that I was expecting, personally, it was kind of one of those fires that you never really hear much of," he said.

When he arrived, his role was to make sure firefighters had water supply. The main water supply had washed up from the town's water so they ended up at the Chaumont Boat Launch and pumping from there with Adams Center Fire Department. He was there for about six or seven hours filling two tankers at a time about every two minutes.

Tom Donovan, firefighter with the Chaumont Fire Department said he pulled up to the fire with a tanker and he immediately knew then that they were going to be there for a while. He said his job was to bring the tankers back and forth from the fill sites.

Assistant Fire Chief Heather Lipczynski was coming from work in Pillar Point where she says she could see the smoke and at one point the flames.

She said her role was to assist the fire chief including establishing a new water supply after the village's water system was drained. Lipczynski also directed traffic at Case Road for four to six hours.

She then assisted in picking up hoses from the scene, and then the next morning assisted the ambulance and Chief Lipczynski.

Chief Lipczynski said his job was to ensure everyone was safe, and that everyone went home, which they accomplished.

He also worked to keep all of the moving parts going for 24 hours a day.

"With the help of County Car 2 we were able to keep everything constantly moving," he said. This includes fresh bodies and ensuring the firefighters got enough rest. He said that some of the chiefs and County Car 2 probably could've gotten some more sleep.

"At the end of the day, that's what our job is as a white helmet per se is to just to make sure everything is going smooth and to make sure that the firefighters are being taken care of and that they're safe," he said.

When the shelter in place took effect, the fire chief said they knew which way the wind was going so they knew that the firefighters were in a safe area because the smoke was blowing the other way.

He said there was no sign of any pollutants in the air upwind.

The chief said Convergent Energy & Power, the owners of the battery storage units, told first responders not to do anything until their officials arrived. That was the plan of attack, he said, and they awaited a handoff. But an hour and a half later, plans changed.

Chief Lipczynski said a phone call from the solar company stated that Convergent had spoken with another agency involved with the solar farm, and the company that controls the batteries stated they wanted the department to start flowing water. That's when operations changed and they began calling ladder trucks and tankers.

The company was able to remotely shut off the solar panels so they weren't energizing the batteries. National Grid also cut the connection to utility poles to stop the power from back feeding. Then pumping water started.

After a battery exploded, they changed from the ladder trucks and pumpers being about 100 feet in, to about 600 feet out and went to ground monitors and kept an eye on those in order to keep everybody safe.

Being a volunteer department, Birchenough said he got off work and was texting Chief Lipczynski if they needed any extra help to make sure they had enough people there.

Chief Lipczynski is retired military so he said he is able to move his schedule around easier than the rest of the crew.

"The rest of the crew though they did a bang-up job trying to rearrange their schedules and being out there with myself and the apparatus helping day in and day out," he said.

The Assistant Chief Lipczynski said she runs a small cleaning business so she said she was able to rearrange her schedule.

"Even though it's volunteer, this comes first in a situation like this," she said.

Donovan said he works a full-time job and two part-time jobs, and added that when he's working he's allowed to go to fire calls.

The county is broken up into six zones, and the fire chief said at one point they had a department from each of the six zones at the fire.

"Every department that we reached out to was more than willing to come down and help, some of them were there multiple days helping," he said. "The community was absolutely awesome, they stepped up no matter what it was whether it was from just ice to help us keep our drinks cool, to bottled water to keep the guys hydrated."

One of the local business that helped out was Wise Guys and they gave 20 pizzas to the department and owner Amy G. Williams said that there was way they would charged for them.

"We definitely wanted to take care of them," she said.

Williams said that this is how its supposed to be with people helping out and taking care of each other.

"That's what Chaumont is all about," she said. "It's a team effort, everybody's got to help each other to get through this world... Thank you to (the fire department) for all that they do."

"We can't thank the community enough for everything that they've done for us," Chief Lipczynski said.

The chief also thanked the surrounding departments that assisted.

"The departments were just gracious, we'd call and they're be like 'Yup we're on our way,'" he said.

In the first two days between 200 and 300 firefighters were there, after that, it's not known how many firefighters showed up.

As part of the mutual aid, the Fire Department of New York showed up, in order to get a first-hand look at what was going on as they said it was the first fire like that in the country. They came up because they'd never seen anything like it, Assistant Chief Lipczynski said.

Chief Lipczynski said that Convergent has been great to work with.

"They didn't have to support the fire department, it's not up to the solar company to support our guys," he said. "I know it is their place on fire, but at the end of the day it wasn't up to them though and they were making sure 'Are you guys fed? Do you guys need this?' and they were also making sure too that everyone that was there around the clock was being taken care of... They've been absolutely phenomenal to our fire department and to the firefighters."

The solar panels are still generating electricity, but it's not connected to the grid, the chief said, as the whole site is offline.

Fire crews were on the scene for well over 1,400 hours, Assistant Chief Lipczynski said.

The fire chief said just for the call alone they were there for six days, three hours and 30 minutes.

The first 36 hours were the most tiring, the chief said because Chaumont crews were working "full-blast." After that, in conjunction with the emergency management coordinators, the departments took shifts so people could go home and rest.

Chief Lipczynski said he turned command over to a county coordinator at night for a few hours.

"We just made it all work," he said.

One shift would be from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. and the next shift would be from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m.

The cleanup efforts include repairs to trucks, cleaning hoses and fire gear, cleaning tents, etc. It is unclear how long cleanup and repairs will take.

The chief said that the fire taxed their budget for what they normally would spend in the entire year between fuel, and equipment repairs.

"It's a lot of equipment repairs on this and really it's going to hurt our budget this year," he said.

When the fire was finally contained, the firefighters said they all felt relief so that their apparatus was back in the service.

The fire chief said his five-year-old son had asked him at one point "Daddy, why don't you just put water on it and come home," and he explained to him that it's not that easy.

Lipczynski at 2 p.m. they day after the fire started, said that firefighting crews were "exhausted."

Fighting a lithium-ion battery fire is "a beast of their own."

"You just can't control it," he said.

Friday afternoon, the fire chief said crews were putting water down near the fire in order to keep converters and transformers cool, keeping oils inside cool. The water also dissipates some of the smoke coming off the batteries.

Pops could be heard at the scene Thursday, and Lipczynski said that was from batteries "off-gassing."

It was unclear how long the fire could burn. "We're at the mercy of the batteries," he said.

The chief said his son had asked him if they were done yet after coming home from the fire around 1 a.m.

"I came home one night, it was like one o'clock in the morning and I heard him stirring a little bit so I went in and saw him and he just grabbed me and gave me the biggest bear hug and told me how much he loved me and he missed me and he goes 'are you done?' and I go 'Not yet' and he goes 'Are you coming home?' and I'm like 'soon,'" Chief Lipczynski said. "It was heart wrenching especially for the kids."

If another emergency were to have happened, other departments would have helped.

Chief Lipczynski said he is hoping they will be able to develop a better plan with the solar and battery companies that are working together so that the firefighters are well trained, and they want to have the right equipment.

"This is very eye-opening that we don't have some of the tools that we need to be able to fight one of these, if we had to do it on our own for the first 30 minutes to an hour before we can get a mutual aid in there," Assistant Chief Lipczynski.

Eventually, the fire went out on Wednesday by simply burning out and fire crews were on scene through Friday, Aug. 11 to assist with Convergent's hazmat team along with an ambulance for precaution, the chief said.

Convergent is handling the investigation into the cause of the fire and there is no timetable for when their investigation could be completed.

The hope was that Friday would've been the last time they will need to be on scene and that the recovery process for Convergent can begin.

There is still no indication of pollutants in the air, Chief Lipczynski said, and there is still no word on water contamination.

He said everything that has been done has been out of an abundance of caution to "keep the checks and balances."

Chaumont Fire Department did a fire watch on Sunday out of an abundance of caution due to an active fire alarm. Firefighters stood by as the facility's electrical crews addressed the issue. Chief Lipczynski said they were on scene for about 10 hours again on Sunday.

The call on Sunday saw Three Mile Bay, and Brownville fire departments dispatched and released, and the department was further assisted by Jefferson County Emergency Management, State Fire, and Cape Vincent Ambulance.