Fire officials: Hicksville fire caused by 'lithium-ion battery powered tool' left in the rain
The fire then spread to the home and caused extensive damage.
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The Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office says a Hicksville fire Sunday night was caused by a "lithium-ion battery powered tool."
"The fire had started in the backyard as a result of a lithium-ion powered tool that had been left in the backyard out in the rain, and the tool, the battery, malfunctioned, failed, started the fire, fire started in the backyard and extended into the house." said Nassau Assistant Chief Fire Marshal James Hickman.
Hickman said the fire caused extensive and severe damage.
Four people were able to safely get out of the Spindle Road home and no one was hurt.
Hickman says this is the 15th fire this year in Nassau County caused by a lithium-ion battery.
Suffolk County Legislator Dominick Thorne, chair of the Fire Rescue and Emergency Medical Services, says there's been at least a dozen fires caused by a lithium-ion battery.
Thorne is reminding everyone that after a bill passed in June by the Legislature, designed to protect people from lithium-ion battery fires, it's illegal to sell any lithium-ion battery without a nationally recognized testing label on it in Suffolk.
"These are these after-market, thrown together batteries, some of them reconditioned, that's proliferated our county, so if it doesn't have it, you can't sell it here." said Thorne. "We have to get ahead of it before somebody dies, you know, a great deal for a $5 five battery is wonderful, but if it burns down your house and kills your family, how wonderful is it?"
