SANFORD, Fla. – A fire broke out early Tuesday at a home in Sanford.
The fire was reported around 5:15 a.m. in the 300 block of Appaloosa Court, east of State Road 417 and south of East Lake Mary Boulevard.
Video from the scene showed a charred vehicle in the driveway, with damage to the garage and second story of the home. The Sanford Fire Department said one person was taken to a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
[VIDEO: Crews battle house fire in Sanford]
News 6 obtained the 911 audio Tuesday afternoon, where you can hear a caller tell dispatch: “Their car, their Tesla in the garage caught on fire, and now their entire house is on fire.”
The Seminole County Fire Department says fires that involve any devices with lithium-ion batteries can be challenging because of the extreme heat.
“It’s thermal runaway,” Lt. Dave Williams with SCFD said. “We can’t just put it out with a little bit of water. It takes copious amounts of water. Matter of fact, even once we put it out - if it’s a vehicle fire - some facilities have them separated for up to 30 days because it can reignite.”
SCFD has specialized training to fight lithium-ion battery fires, as they have become more common.
“When you look at your household products, there’s a study that just came out showing that there’s an average of 70 lithium-ion batteries in your house,” Williams said. “Lithium-ion batteries are part of our daily lives, from cell phones to laptops, to even the smoke detectors we put in houses now. Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere.”
Firefighters say the danger isn’t necessarily in the devices themselves, but how they are used and stored.
“Use the appropriate and approved charging device for those lithium-ion battery products,” Williams said. “Second of all, when you decide you’re going to do a self repair and replace those batteries, only use the recommended batteries for that product.”
Williams recommends looking at the specifications for the device, and making sure it’s the right voltage, and right amperage, so that the battery does not overheat.
“Take your cell phone at night, it should be on a flat, hard surface next to you,” Williams said. “But when you put it between the pillow and the bed itself, it overheats. Matter of fact, we shouldn’t be charging while we’re sleeping.”
It’s also important for batteries to be thrown away properly. In 2023, officials say a lithium battery that was thrown in the trash started a fire that did almost half a million dollars in damage at the transfer station.
Officials recommend people bring their old lithium batteries to the Transfer Station, which has a dedicated drop-off area. The Transfer Station located at 1950 State Road 419, Longwood, FL 32750 is open six days per week, 10 hours per day.
There are other options for recycling if you’d rather not visit the Transfer Station. Stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples, Batteries Plus, Best Buy and many others accept lithium batteries.
Alkaline batteries, also called “flashlight batteries,” like 9-volt, C, D, AA, AAA can be disposed of in the trash.