Fire - Emptied Gaylord Box

Incident Date: 12/14/17

Incident Description:  Employee emptied a Gaylord box into the Electric Motor bin that was received from the company's satellite facility.  After the box was emptied, the employee began to push the pile up with a skid-steer loader.  The employee noticed that pile began to smoke.  Acting quickly the employee began to remove materials from the pile with the skid-steer loader and noticed that the pile contained (2) Li-Ion power tool batteries. One of the batteries was in the process of melting and smoldering, the other was intact.  The employee pushed the small pile containing these batteries into an open area that a fire extinguisher was available.  Another employee in the work area extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher.

Corrective Action: Review the safe handling and packaging procedures of batteries of all varieties with all staff members.  Review this report with all employees.