Massachusetts
Lithium-ion battery fires jump rapidly in Massachusetts: ‘They’re nearly impossible to extinguish’
Firefighters across Massachusetts are facing the “nearly impossible” task of extinguishing lithium-ion battery fires much more often, according to new state data showing that such blazes have spiked sharply in the past half-year.
The state Department of Fire Service created a checklist last October for local departments to use to track the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which power large devices like electric vehicles and smaller items like smartphones and e-cigarettes.
So far, the form has helped 38 cities and towns identify 50 lithium-ion battery fires in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine said in a release Wednesday.
The Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System, a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into a national reporting system, recorded an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year from 2019 to 2023.
“The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors,” Davine said.
The State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit immediately started using the form which is optional for local fire departments to gather information when responding to fires involving lithium-ion batteries – make and model of the device, purchase history, and whether it was charging at the time of the blaze.
Brockton Deputy Chief Kevin Galligan told the Herald that he believes the number of lithium-ion battery fires since October is more than double the figure the DFS has reported. Firefighters are still being educated about the form and about the kind of fire, he said.
In the past, firefighters blamed the device for the fire and not the battery, Galligan said.
“I’m personally to a point where almost every fire I go to now I’m assuming I’ll be dealing with lithium-ion batteries,” he said, “whether they’re the cause of the fire or they were involved in the fire. It’s almost as if we can’t get away from them at this point.”
Nine of the 50 fires that DFS reported involved battery-powered scooters, e-bikes, and hoverboards. Eight involved laptops and another eight involved cell phones, tablets, or similar devices. Power tools were involved in six fires.
“The device’s charging status could be determined in 41 of the 50 fires: surprisingly, 56% of these devices were not charging at the time of the incident,” according to officials.
Lithium-ion battery fires are “much more intense” than a fire caused by careless disposal of a cigarette or cooking, Galligan said. Smaller devices that use lithium-ion batteries like a drill or a laptop are relatively easy to extinguish, but it’s a different story for larger items like vehicles, he said.
“They’re nearly impossible to extinguish and you use thousands of gallons of water trying to cool the batteries to prevent it spreading from battery to battery,” Galligan said. “Once a battery is in thermal runaway, there’s nearly nothing you could do to stop that single cell. … The only thing we could do is try to cool the batteries around it to stop the spread.”
Even after the fire is extinguished, there is still more work for firefighters as they have to make sure all batteries are removed from the scene so they don’t cause a rekindle, Galligan said.
New York City has made national headlines, with the number of incidents there, soaring well over 200, injuring more than 100 people and killing 14. After a series of fires involving faulty e-bike batteries including a blaze that claimed four lives last June, officials announced they were receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal government to fund scores of charging stations citywide.
“It’s a significant challenge for the fire service,” Galligan said. “We are constantly coming up against whatever the next problem is, and it does require a lot of training and additional equipment to address this. But it’s something that we have to face because the lithium-ion batteries are not going away.”
A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.
State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.
The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.
This story will be updated when we learn more
A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.
Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.
Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.
Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.
He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.
Massachusetts
Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth
BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.
Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.
That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.
Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.
White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.
“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.
Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.
Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”
White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.
Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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