More than 1000 battery-related fires were reported in the waste and recycling industry last year.

Garth Lamb, the Chief Development Officer at Re.Group, tells Tom Elliott, lithium batteries are prone to fires because they store high voltages of energy.

“The problem is when they still got a bit of charge in them, if they get damaged, they can create a chemical reaction,” he told 3AW Mornings.

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Lamb says once a battery fire starts, “they’re very very difficult to put out, and very quick, very intense.”