Fire extinguished quickly at Kasson commercial building

Nov. 12—KASSON, Minn. — A fire involving overheated or damaged lithium batteries was quickly extinguished at a commercial building in Kasson, Minnesota, on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Firefighters from the Kasson Fire Department responded to the call at 1:42 p.m. Tuesday at a building on the 300 block of Fifth Street Southeast in Kasson. The site is the same one where a commercial building burned down in August 2021.

The fire did not cause any major damage to the new commercial building.

Kasson Fire Chief Joe Fitch said the renter of the unit, which is a large open bay in the commercial building that also houses a custom cabinetry business and a hot tub business, had a bank of lithium batteries used for power tools plugged in. There were also other similar batteries on the premises.

"He's actually got quite a few other batteries in there, and we're actually going to leave them just because, for us, picking them up and moving them — doing anything like that — could, if they are damaged in any way, could cause them to blow up or spark off in our guys' faces," Fitch said.

No one was hurt, Fitch said, as the employees in the cabinet shop were not on the premises at the time.

Fitch said the fire department will eventually work with the renter of the bay to find a safer way to store and charge the batteries.

Lithium batteries present a unique problem for firefighters. Fitch said damaged or overheated batteries can explode, and dangerous fumes could off-gas from such a fire.

None of that happened Tuesday.

None of the nearby businesses, which include a veterinarian, a disabilities service nonprofit and Kasson City Hall were evacuated due to the fire, which Fitch said was put out in just a few minutes.

Firefighters remained on the scene to run exhaust fans and clean up water that was used in putting out the fire.