In this June 5, 2020 file photo a City Fire Department engine arrives at the scene of a brush fire between Interstate 15 and Old Highway 91 north of Cedar City, Utah | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
CEDAR CITY — Firefighters were called out to two fires at midday Friday involving a shipping container and a radio-controlled car in a kitchen.
In a file photo for illustrative purposes only, Cedar City Fire Department firefighters respond, Cedar City, Utah, May 21, 2024 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
Cedar City firefighters were first called out around noon to a fire in the kitchen of an apartment at the Libertad housing complex on North Novi Hills Drive. But Cedar City Fire Chief Mike Phillips said it wasn’t an oven or gas fire but the lithium-ion battery of a radio control racing car being charged.
“Those lithium-ion batteries are causing a lot of fires,” Phillips said. “I would not leave one unattended. Don’t charge it overnight.”
Phillips said sprinklers inside did most of the work of putting it out.
As firefighters were at the apartments, they got another call about three miles south to the 10 block of Paradise Canyon Road where a Conex steel shipping container on the side of a home was in flames.
“It burned up everything inside the box,” Phillips said, adding that damage was limited to the container.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Reed serves as a reporter for St. George News, where he has been honored with several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work, including first-place accolades. He started his journalism career as a sports reporter and editor in Southern California where he once compared shoe sizes with Shaquille O'Neal and exchanged mix tapes with members of the Los Angeles Kings. After growing up in the San Fernando Valley learning karate skills from Mr. Miyagi and spending a decade in Las Vegas mostly avoiding the casinos, he came to St. George for love and married his soulmate, a lifetime Southern Utah resident. He is the proud father of two boys, his youngest a champion against both autism and Type 1 diabetes.
