30-07-2025
How one sheriff's office in Colorado is working to contain lithium battery fires
Behind your locked phone is a lot of information, and if tech is ever tied to a crime, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office can follow a warrant to find that information as evidence.
"Computers, laptops, pretty much anything, VR headsets, basically everything in our lives has digital stuff attached to it," said Boulder County Sheriff Sergeant Clay Leak.
Leak works at BCSO's Digital Forensics Lab. Part of their work is in an effort to crack dozens of phones in their evidence locker that are all charging, all the time.
"We've had a few batteries come in bulging, and that's one of the first concerns is, gosh, what if, you know, what if something happens to this?" Leak explained, "We don't want to burn the building down or destroy any of our evidence."
The worry comes from the risk of lithium battery fires. These fires have been reported in news stories in homes and on planes. The fires can happen if the battery powering our everyday tech gets damaged or overheats.
The FAA says it's happening on planes every week, and tech company Lithium Fire Guard is working to stop it.
Nick Dunbar is the Vice President of Sales for Lithium Fire Guard. The device is designed to surround the affected device and filter out any toxic fumes. There is then an area to pour water into the device to submerge the technology.
"We added the fire extinguisher, we added the ax, we added the defibrillator," Dunbar said, "I think that, and not very long, we're going to see this box sitting there."
Dunbar says this is the only single-state device to be certified for lithium battery containment.
"The batteries create their own oxygen, so you can't snuff these batteries out with a blanket," Dunbar said.
While the device was originally sold for aviation, this box is one of the latest purchases by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.
"You can't put a price on being able to, you know, guarantee the safety of my examiners because of the toxic fumes that would come off during a battery fire, and then also the security and safety of the building," Leak said.
Right now fire guard says they're selling boxes to any industry that uses tech even beyond aviation and law enforcement.
"We've started selling to hotels," Dunbar said. "There was the Chromebook TikTok trend, where students were igniting their own Chromebook. And so we've had schools look at our product."
While the current Lithium Fire Guard product aims at containing fires, Dunbar says they plan to release more preventative measures later this year.
