Fire at Saft Batteries facility on the Westside is out, Jacksonville firefighters say

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Hours after a large battery caught fire inside a factory on the Westside on Tuesday morning, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department said just before 5 p.m. that the fire is out.

About 100 JFRD firefighters responded to the fire at Saft Batteries on Waterworks Street. Roads around the factory were also closed as a result.

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“All I seen was firetrucks and police officers stopping us from going to work,” Claude Ingram said.

Ingram was one of many who couldn’t get to work Tuesday morning as JFRD responded to what was initially reported as a hazardous material fire.

JFRD said crews responded around 7:15 a.m., where they found a large battery.

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″This is a big battery, it’s like 5 feet by 5 feet by about 2 feet tall,” JFRD said.

And the gas it released caused those inside to evacuate.

“It puts off some pretty dangerous gas, hydrogen fluoride is one of the gases it’s putting off. When it goes off it puts off hydrogen, which is extremely explosive,” JFRD said.

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Hazmat teams were on the scene monitoring the air, however, there is no danger to anyone in any area of the building. JFRD said battery fires cannot be put out with just water.

″They are small cells packed together real tight so what happens is once you get thermal runway with one battery, then it impacts all the other ones and compromises them,” JFRD said.

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