KENT COUNTY, Mich. — The Kent County Department of Public Works has a brand new fire suppression system in its Recycling and Education Center.
Steve Faber, the communications and marketing manager for the Kent County DPW, said over the last several years their facilities and disposal trucks have seen more and more fires.
The most recent fire happened earlier this year at the Recycling and Education Center. No one was hurt and no equipment was damaged in the fire, but there was a pause in operations.
These fires, he said, are primarily caused by lithium-ion batteries going into the trash or recycling.
"Just this year, we had a fire here at the recycling center where someone put a lithium-ion battery in their recycling, thinking it could go here, and that really needs special collection," Faber said. "And it caused a fire and we could have lost this whole facility. So that's why we installed new fire suppression equipment."
Faber said it's difficult to detect lithium-ion batteries once recycling comes out of the truck and is put on the floor.
"It's almost impossible to tell that they're in there," Faber said. "And if that battery gets exposed to the air or to water, it can cause that fire. And then putting out that fire can become very, very difficult because this is all plastic and paper, so it's a very flammable material."
He said after the latest fire at the facility, the Kent County Board of Public Works decided it was important to invest in a fire suppression system to catch the emergency early.
Faber said Fire Rover is an automated system that uses thermal cameras and water jets to quickly target the fire before the fire department arrives.
The system will constantly monitor the facility, even when people aren't there.
Faber said that because water doesn't work very well when putting out fires from lithium-ion batteries, the system can use a special type of foam to put out the fire.
"Thankfully, our Board of Public Works approved the funding that we needed to put in this system," Faber said. "This is becoming more and more the standard. You know, our system, our facility here, is almost 20 years old. And so we weren't really thinking about this the same way that we are now."
He said there are proper ways to dispose of lithium-ion batteries.
According to Faber, Kent County has five household hazardous waste collection sites across the county.
"Whether that's a rechargeable battery on your drill, or a vape pen, or your battery laptop. We want those to go to a special collection, not be thrown in the trash and not be thrown in your recycle cart," he said.
Kent County DPW has a recycling and waste directory on its website to help you determine where to properly dispose of different items.