Yeah I think a LiPo fire is a nice safe show!
In British cultural terms, LiPo is the bonfire and cylindrical cells are more the fireworks...

Quote Originally Posted by overkill View Post
Interesting info! An accident prone friend had an A123 cell explode in his robot - it didn't involve much fire but made a terrible mess. I once had a large Nicad pack short internally, leading to all the tabs melting off and the electrolyte boiling and venting; when it comes to batteries, safety is a relative term .
Was that a nano-phosphate cell? I guess the definition "safe" is "the nasty stuff mostly stays inside the robot"...

At the end of the day batteries are just chunks of poison that store a load of energy - the energy wants to get out and if it does so too quickly it will get very warm and distribute the poison over a wide area. Don't be too hard on batteries though, petrol tanks aren't that different.