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Post Li-ion battery fire recovery and reinstatement procedures in your sector

Peter Bugryniec

I have been searching for guidance on returning a site/asset to service after a lithium-ion battery fire, but I keep running into the same wall: plenty of material on prevention, detection, suppression and firefighting, but very little on what happens after the all-clear call.

Once the fire's out, how do you know the area is actually safe to re-enter?

How long do you monitor for off-gassing and re-ignition before you're confident the risk has passed?

What's the basis for deciding a space can be reinstated versus needing further remediation?

Formal standards in this area seem thin or still catching up, so a lot of what's actually happening in the field looks like it's being worked out site by site, sector by sector.

I'm hoping this discussion can help:

  • What does your organisation actually do, in practice, after a Li-ion incident?

If you've been through a real event, in automotive, grid-scale, manufacturing, aviation, marine, recycling, distribution or otherwise, I'd be glad to hear about it.

A few questions to kick things off:

  • What monitoring (gas detection, thermal imaging, etc.) and hold times do you use before permitting re-entry?
  • Do you have a documented decision process for reinstating equipment or space versus condemning it, and who signs off?
  • And has your approach changed following any incident, near-miss, or new internal guidance?

I am keen to compare notes across sectors, since I suspect there's more consistency in practice than in what's written down.

Thanks in advance.

Contact me directly if you prefer.

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  • Just a random though ... I suspect a lot of the 'what nexts' depend a lot on what exactly he fire did - and so many of the plans can only be made once people know what they're actually dealing with. With many major fires, it's the structural integrity of the building that's the biggest concern (no point deciding if re-entry is permitted depending on the sate of the remains of the battery, if the walls are about to fall down or the roof cave in). I suspect such things are often handled by the Fire & Rescue service in conjunction with building control and any specialist engineers they call in. It's then a matter of picking up the pieces ... but that's hard to plan for until you have some idea of what pieces (if any) you have left to pick up...

       - Andy.

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    Correct, but with so many potential cases of e-bike fires, EVs in garages & workshops or larger stationary batteries, the result does not necessarily mean responding to a building that has been significantly damaged. As with emergency response planning, critical stages are defined, but the exact actions taken are decided in the moment by the first responders. However, these plans and actions are built from past knowledge. Being totally reactive to post-battery off-gassing or fire misses an opportunity to learn from past events to allow industries and sectors to act faster and more effectively, reducing downtime, lost income or environmental damage.

    There are many variables, but that shouldn't stop us from analysing past incidents to establish best practice for post-fire recovery and reinstatement.

  • in reply to Peter Bugryniec

    Oh, I'm definitely not suggesting we don't try to learn from past events or plan for the worst - far from it. I guess by initial thought is perhaps that such things, in some respects, are perhaps better done by specialists working across many such incidents (e.g. the FRS and related), rather than by each individual building owner trying to plan for a once in a blue moon event.

       - Andy.

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  • in reply to Peter Bugryniec

    Oh, I'm definitely not suggesting we don't try to learn from past events or plan for the worst - far from it. I guess by initial thought is perhaps that such things, in some respects, are perhaps better done by specialists working across many such incidents (e.g. the FRS and related), rather than by each individual building owner trying to plan for a once in a blue moon event.

       - Andy.

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