Lithium batteries possible fire hazard

[bascom]

Should I be concerned about the lithium batteries inside my cameras, cell phone, and mp3 players? Could they start a home fire?

http://www.channel3000.com/nationaln...71/detail.html

"Unlike other kinds of batteries, some lithium batteries contain metal that will spontaneously ignite if exposed to air. Also, the positive and negative poles in some lithium batteries are close together, leading more easily to short circuiting, which can cause a fire."

[Anthony]

Interesting artical; I did know that some batteries were dangerous to take apart.

Anything with electricity is dangerous - we had a fire at work due to the battery charger for a drill on charge.
At home I was sitting down stairs and heard a bang and on investigating a metal haylide battery had exploded in the charger and had blown the lid off - you can see why the chargers have lids although they are not interlocked into the charging circuit.

I never leave anything on charge when out of the house or going to bed.

[Paradox]

The chances of anything going wrong with a good quality battery are very low. A few people have been killed by cheap batteries in phones, the rate is a bit over 1 a year in China where there are loads of them about. So there is a risk. But it's absolutely minute, and statistically you're probably a few million times more likely to die in a car crash than in an accident involving a battery. So it's not really a legitimate concern.