Superior Battery Sued Over Morris Fire That Displaced Thousands

MORRIS, IL — The Illinois Attorney General's Office announced it is suing Superior Battery, Inc. over the massive fire at its Morris warehouse in June, when 90 tons of volatile lithium batteries exploded and nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated.

The fire prompted a disaster proclamation by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the air in surrounding areas unsafe to breathe for almost a week. The facility housed solar panels, lead and acid batteries, along with lithium products.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Grundy County Court and alleges the company's decisions put the public health and safety of Morris residents — along with the environment — in "substantial" danger.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement the lawsuit is meant to set a precedent so similar incidents don't happen again. The main allegations in the suit state the company put harmful pollution into the air during the fire and did not alert city officials of the types of potentially harmful materials being stored in the warehouse.

"The role of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency is to help the residents of our state and our local governments prepare for and respond to all natural, manmade or technological disasters, hazards or acts of terrorism," IEMA director Alicia Tate-Nadeau said in a news release. "Responding to an incident of this nature puts our first responders at great risk and assumes a financial cost. This lawsuit seeks to reimburse the state for costs incurred from this incident."

Morris officials told Patch the company did not request a business license for the warehouse, which used to be a paper mill. Fire crews said that if they knew the building housed lithium, they wouldn't have attempted to first put out the fire with water, a reaction that only made the substance more likely to combust.

The fire raged for almost four days before emergency officials, with help from fire departments across the country, were able to use dry cement to smother the flames.