Firefighters were injured in an explosion earlier this year resulting from a fire at an Arizona Public Service utility company storage facility west of Phoenix. The incident has prompted a member of the state commission that regulates public utilities to recommend APS consider using sources of power other than the lithium ion batteries used at the facility. Fulton Schools Professor Hanqing Jiang, whose research involves developing advances in lithium ion batteries, says they are the best kind of batteries for power storage applications and can be prevented from catching on fire with proper safety precautions.

See Also: 4 months later, investigators still looking for cause in APS battery facility explosion, Fox 10 News-Phoenix, August 8