A
truck
full
of
lithium-ion
batteries
is
burning
in
Los
Angeles,
shutting
down
ports
and
a
bridge.
It’s
not
clear
what
the
batteries
were
for
—
but
LA’s
Vincent
Thomas
Bridge,
leading
to
the
Port
of
Los
Angeles
and
the
next-door
Port
of
Long
Beach,
has
been
shut
down
for
at
least
15
hours
now
while
local
firefighters
let
the
truck
burn.
State
Route
47
was
also
closed
in
both
directions
as
of
a
couple
of
hours
ago.
Amazingly,
a
local
towing
company
caught
the
explosion
on
camera
from
a
nearby
drone:
Both
the
Port
of
Los
Angeles
and
the
Port
of
Long
Beach
have
shut
down
a
number
of
terminals
while
the
fire
continues
to
burn.
As
of
12:10PM
PT
on
Friday,
the
truck
was
still
on
fire,
and
both
the
ports
and
bridge
were
still
closed,
Los
Angeles
Fire
Department
(LAFD)
spokesperson
Ren
Medina
told
The
Verge.
Firefighters
are
nearby
and
are
actively
monitoring
the
situation;
as
of
10PM
PT
on
Thursday,
the
fire
was
expected
to
last
“at
least
another
24-48
hours.”
As
we’ve
seen
with
several
EV
battery
fires,
big
concentrated
lithium
battery
fires
can
be
very
difficult
to
put
out:
firefighters
sometimes
douse
them
with
thousands
of
gallons
of
water
only
to
see
the
fire
restart
as
additional
battery
cells
heat
up
to
the
point
that
they
combust.
Once
a
cell
gets
hot
enough,
it’s
said
to
go
into
“thermal
runaway,”
at
which
point
it
can
sometimes
restart
a
fire.
The
LAFD
confirms
this
is
a
case
of
thermal
runaway.
EV
packs
are
particularly
dense
with
cells,
but
we
don’t
yet
know
if
they
were
involved
here
—
the
LA
Fire
Department
spokesperson
says
it’s
not
clear
who
owns
the
truck,
let
alone
what
it
was
carrying.
The
LAFD
could
only
confirm
they
are
lithium-ion
batteries
at
this
point.
Pepe’s
Tow
Service
owner
Josh
Acosta,
who
filmed
the
explosion
with
his
drone,
didn’t
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.
But
he’s
apparently
planning
to
publish
more
footage:
“Full
video
on
YouTube
is
going
to
be
insane!!!”
he
wrote.
Umar
Shakir
contributed
to
this
story
(Originally posted by Sean Hollister)
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