Fire in building filled with lithium batteries

[Blast]

A building filled with abandoned lithium batteries caught on fire. Firefighters had no idea what to do at first. The solution sounded difficult!
From the article:
"Enough progress has been made on a fire at a northern Illinois building containing 100 tons of [lithium] batteries that thousands of residents can finally return to their homes three days after they were evacuated, officials said Friday.

Firefighters in Morris poured 28 tons of cement on the burning batteries to smother hem, according to Chief Tracey Steffes, who previously warned that water or foam could cause the batteries to explode. He said the use of the cement — a tactic that, as far as he knew, had never been tried before — appeared to be working and that there was no longer any active burning at the building.

He said firefighters were monitoring the site because the batteries don't require oxygen to burn and thus could ignite again.

At the same time, officials believe it's safe for the 3,000 to 4,000 people who were evacuated from about 950 homes to return to their residences, both because of how effective the cement was and because of the air quality in the community.+

https://herald-review.com/news/national/evacuation-order-in-illinois-city-lifted-3-days-after-fire/article_9750123c-009d-5d62-b21d-7df250bc47e5.html

This makes me wonder about office buildings where nowadays every desk worker usually has UPC with a lithium battery. The next towering inferno is going to be complicated to extinguish.
-Blast