How much are you prepared to spend defending your copyright Peter?

If you phone NSW Fire and Rescue in all probability, just like many other government departments, you will be talking to administration staff or even those higher that have no idea. Any report prepared by them is a public document and can be obtained through the the proper process. It is not owned by the insurance company. There is and Act and Regulations that cover this.

Unlike you Peter where I asked for the location of the incident and said there would be links, only to be advised with an arrogant reply, 'if there are links you can find them as easily as I can', I am more than happy to provide such information as i know it may be of benefit to others. The Act is the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA) and I know because I made four applications last year and have dealt with that Act and the previous Freedom of Information Act for many years.

As for the the NSW Fire and Rescue report it will be very basic and based upon what the officer observed. There will be no forensic examination or police investigation unless there were suspicious circumstances or other factors such as serious injury or death etc. Sometimes the cause of the fire will be incorrect.

The brand of battery is not 'legally sensitive information', it is no different than a news report identifying a brand of car that caught fire for some reason. You Peter, are not part of, and never will be part of, any legal action if you identify the make of battery.

If the owners insurance company has paid out they may well be trying to recover costs but any action will be between the insurance company and the battery supplier's insurance company or the supplier themselves, if they do not have insurance. These matters are generally settled out of court and the vehicle owner will not be part of it or even know the settlement if any. So, in the absence of any forensic examination it will be an interesting fight.

So looking at the 'unnamed battery' and not knowing the brand we have no idea whether it is LiFePO4, prismatic cells or even some other Lithium chemistry. I can see why AI has picked up on it being pouch cells and with the label stating 'Lithium' as opposed to LiFePO4 that would not have helped. AI also stated that the sensor leads are not visible and so they wouldn't be if one knows how LiFePO4 are constructed and where the sensor leads run. They do not connect to the main battery terminals at all. They connect to each individual cell and to the BMS.

What is really interesting are the two cables running to the one terminal but from different directions. If they were double cables to carry the current then you would expect them to run in the same direction but in this case on runs to the top and disappears out of view under the melted case whilst the other runs in the opposite direction. In prismatic cell battery construction the positive runs from cell No.1 to the positive battery terminal and the negative runs from cell No.4 to the BMS and then from the BMS to the battery negative terminal.

If proven, and I doubt it will be with no forensic examination, this could be the world's first and a special event seeing as the battery had been isolated for 2 days. There have been past LiFePO4 fires around the world, just a couple, and from the limited information that is available they appear to be cause by mechanical issues or an accident as happened in Aberdeen. My searching of past fires through AI led me to a Facebook page of an incident in Sydney in 2024, cause unknown, but it appears that the photos and posts have been removed. Who knows why but maybe someone contradicted the posters photo.

Eve alone produce the equivalent of 222,222,000 100Ah batteries in prismatic cells annually (GWh production changed to 100Ah battery equivalent) and Catl 523,437,500 100Ah batteries. Even if this battery fire event was proven to be an internal short then what are the odds of it happening to me or anyone else?

-- Edited by TimTim on Sunday 11th of January 2026 06:06:17 PM

Have just recharged my batteries back up after my camper was stuck in a fire zone area in Victoria after 10 days of use running just my Engel fridge and I couldn't get in to retrieve it till now. I have 2 x 120ah Kings LiFePO4 batteries. Seems like I used 220ah during that time and had 15% left from what was showing on my Victron shunt information. That equates to around 250ah from my calculation, I could be bad at maths though. Anyway I'm happy with that as I expected everything in the fridge ot be off and stinking. This has been the deepest discharge on the batteries except for when I tested them when I purchased them.

Good for you Corndoggy and great to hear your camper was not damaged in the fires.

Not technically a true capacity test but in a proper test there would probably not be much difference.  LiFePO4 are tested at 0.2C rate so in your case with a current draw of 48A or 24A for one battery

Good luck 

What flavor are yours Dick0?

I am thinking of changing my now 16-year-old AGM's to Lithium that have nearly ridden on ahead (OK during the sunny day but can't change fully to see the night through).

On top of the list is Kings 120 closely followed by iTECHWORLD. Thinking, thinking, thinking  

Spose I can't complain about 16 years really. 

 

 

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.