It is fairly common knowledge that the kitchen is one of the most common sources of home fires. Misuse or malfunction of the oven results in multiple fires per year, and electrical shortages also cause numerous blazes. However, there are other potential sources, and you likely have one of them inside your home right now. If you currently store batteries inside of a junk drawer as many people do, the 9-volt batteries pose a particularly hazardous fire risk.


While this danger is easily avoided, many people do not know about it. As a result, multiple house fires are started each year as a result of 9-volt batteries overheating.

The Danger

Nine-volt batteries are unique because both terminals are on the same end of the battery casing. The two terminals are only separated by centimeters. As a result, they can be easily connected by accident if they come into contact with the same piece of metal. Paperclips, steel wool, car keys or any other metal component can cause this. Once the two terminals are connected, the battery itself starts to heat. The battery can also heat up the metal it is touching, depending on the specific characteristics of that metal. If anything near the battery or the metal is flammable, there is a significant danger of a fire starting that can quickly spread throughout the house.

Steel wool is especially susceptible to this, and is often kept in junk drawers with batteries. In fact, steel wool and 9-volt batteries are often recommended in survival situations, such as in the woods, when you need to start a fire with limited resources.

Case Studies

In 2013, a Colorado man lost his entire home to fire after he’d replaced the 9-volt batteries in a smoke detector and put the old batteries in a paper bag. After placing the bag in a drawer, the connections of the two batteries touched each other, causing an overheating that resulted in the fire that destroyed the house. The paper bag provided the perfect combustible material for the fire to consume and spread.

Disaster was averted in 2012 when a New Hampshire homeowner came home to find smoke coming out of a junk drawer. A small fire was starting from 9-volt batteries that the homeowner was able to extinguish.

These cases are not unique. Fires are caused by 9-volt batteries every year. While these fires require a specific set of circumstances in order to start, the batteries are so common in nearly every household that there is always a risk if you do not store the batteries properly.

Prevention

Nine-volt batteries are not inherently dangerous. You just have to store them properly so that the contacts on the battery do not come into contact with any metallic objects or with other batteries. There are two ideal ways of doing this. First, store 9-volt batteries in their original plastic packaging. The packaging is designed to keep the batteries separate from each other. It also covers the end terminals so that no metal will come into contact with them when they are stored in a drawer.

If you already have 9-volt batteries in a drawer without the original packaging, cover the end terminals with electrical tape. The tape insulates the terminals, and prevents them from coming into contact with anything that can cause overheating and fire. Cover 9-volt batteries with electrical tape before you throw them away as well, just to make sure the batteries stay safe. Batteries that are low on charge may still have enough juice to cause a heating problem under certain conditions.

Go through the drawers in your house, and make sure that you don’t have any loose 9-volt batteries anywhere. It just takes a few minutes to ensure that your house is protected against an entirely avoidable fire risk. If you have children in the house, talk to them about 9-volt batteries, and make sure they understand that the batteries are not a toy. You need to have consistent good habits to keep your home and family protected.