about twenty years ago I was involved in Emergency Planning for a South West County Council. We had a callout to a fire on the M5 near Taunton.
A truck carrying scrap material from RNAS and Westlands (Yeovil) caught fire and burned very fiercely. A slew of fire appliances had some difficulty extinguishing the blaze, and the water and foam provided a test of contamination procedures.
The 'inquest' revealed that a crate of lithium batteries from helicopters had been accidentally soaked with rain, and the resultant short-circuit had created a fire, which then affected other battery crates, and magnesium aircraft parts.
It was a visually spectacular fire
Procedures for isolating scrap lithium batteries from Westlands were put into place as a result.
Lithium battery fires are nothing new.