On Thursday, what began as a routine morning at the Hillsboro data center outside of Portland, Oregon turned into a five-hour battle against burning lithium-ion batteries that reveals critical gaps in how we regulate and prepare for the toxic risks posed by large-scale battery facilities.
The Hillsboro facility, reportedly leased by Elon Musk’s X for data storage including servers and networking infrastructure, became the site of a dangerous lithium fire on May 29. Fire crews were ultimately forced to abandon direct suppression efforts, instead working to contain the perimeter while allowing the battery bank to burn itself out.
The thick, toxic smoke and the fire's resistance to traditional suppression methods highlight a troubling reality: lithium-ion battery fires don't behave like ordinary fires, and our emergency response systems aren't adequately prepared for them.