CREWS are working to render a Lake Macquarie battery factory safe after they extinguished a fire that forced 50 people to evacuate.
Nine fire trucks, including hazardous materials specialists, were called to the Munibung Road site about 1pm on Thursday.
Fire and Rescue NSW said the blaze broke out in a shed containing truck batteries.
Police and firefighters worked to evacuate 50 workers from the site and the blaze was extinguished.
No-one is believed to have been injured.
The flames were contained to two large lithium batteries that firefighters estimated were about 1.5 cubic metres in size.
Efforts continued on Thursday afternoon to extract the large volume of potentially toxic smoke from the two-storey warehouse, as well as to cool the battery units "to render the site safe".
Firefighters wearing breathing equipment are using a gas detector to confirm the area is clear of harmful smoke in the air.
