FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) — Employees had to evacuate the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Fall River on Friday following after a lithium ion battery overheated within the building, according to police.

Fall River District Chief Sean Flannery told 12 News the malfunctioning battery sent toxic fumes into the air.

“Amazon staff shut the power off to [the battery] and minimized the off-gassing taking place,” Flannery explained. “There were aight banks of batteries and they isolated it to one bank, so it could have been a lot worse.”

“So, what we thought was the worse case scenario turned out to be fairly OK,” he added.

Flannery said 11 Amazon employees and six firefighters were decontaminated. Of those Amazon workers, 10 were brought to the hospital as a precaution.

“Once we were able to ventilate the building, employees were let back in and it was business as usual,” Flannery said.

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