Updated: Container fire under control at Port of Montreal

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Montreal’s fire department said late Monday it had contained a fire in a container at the Port of Montreal holding 15,000 kilograms of lithium batteries.

Some residents of the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough were advised to stay in their homes Monday evening and close their windows as foul-smelling smoke filled the area. The city confirmed around 10:30 p.m. that the confinement advisory had been lifted and the air did not pose any danger to residents.

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Martin Guilbault, division chief of the Montreal fire service, said the smoke “was smelling bad but it was not dangerous,” and added that air quality was monitored through the evening.

The confinement area, bordered by Vimont St, Hochelaga Ave., Haig Ave. and the St. Lawrence River, asked residents to stay inside their homes and close their windows. Notre-Dame St. was closed to traffic, and power was shut off to thousands in the area as a precaution. By 10 p.m., power had been restored and Notre-Dame reopened to traffic, and people were being allowed to return home.

The fire began around 3:15 p.m. in a container filled with the batteries in Section 62 near the Bossuet St. entrance. A container ship, identified by MarineTraffic.com as the Danish-flagged Vistula Maersk, was moored nearby.

“The main problem with the lithium battery is that the lithium battery is able to produce its own heat, so when it gets on fire it produces a lot of heat which ignites the next battery,” Guilbault explained.

“And as lithium batteries are made in series, these batteries are small. That’s why these battery fires are hard to put out.

“The only way we have to put it out is to put water on it so we can cool down all the batteries and stop that chain reaction.”

Around 10 p.m., Guilbault said the fire was “mostly contained now but we still have hours of work to do.”

One firefighter suffered a minor knee injury, he said.

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