Last year was “a year of growth” for Fire Rover, but as a company that specializes in fire detection and suppression, that’s not entirely good news. The company, which releases annual reports on waste and recycling facility fires in the U.S. and Canada, said it saw a 60% increase in fire identifications in 2024. Confirmed fires have increased from 1,409 in 2022, to 1,809 in 2023, to 2,910 last year. Publicly reported fire incidents at waste and recycling facilities also hit 398, a new high since Fire Rover began compiling its report eight years ago.
Fires at waste facilities are nothing new and can be sparked from numerous causes. However, Ryan Fogelman, CEO of Fire Rover, says lithium-ion batteries pose a growing problem, specifically those from e-cigarettes, vapes, and other battery-powered nicotine devices. He said, based on his experience and some assumptions, that about half of the fires he’s tracking originate with batteries. Roughly $2.5 billion of loss to facilities and infrastructure came from fires last year, divided between traditional hazards and batteries.
“Not only are their batteries being improperly discarded in waste and recycling bins, but the vape industry has done the bare minimum to invest in the technology needed to address the 1.2 billion vapes entering our waste and recycling streams annually,” Fogelman said.
“Vapes are perhaps the most effective single thing the e-waste and recycling industries could target,” Kevin Purdy, wrote for ARS Technica. “If everybody knew how to dispose of vapes properly, at sites that can safely handle them, there could be a reduction in risk.
“But that safe, evenly distributed vape disposal network does not exist.”
