Building a Lithium-Ion Fire Plan for EV Fleets & Workplaces

Building a Lithium-Ion Fire Plan for EV Fleets & Workplaces

For fleet managers and facilities teams, lithium-ion risk is concentrated: dozens of vehicles, e-bikes, forklifts or power tools charging in one depot or warehouse. The broader trend is hard to ignore — FRNSW recorded 332 lithium-ion battery incidents across NSW in 2025, and battery fires now extend into waste and industrial settings as well as homes (NSW Government, 2026). A workplace fire plan that treats battery fires like ordinary fires will leave staff exposed, because the suppression assumptions are different.

Design the charging environment first

  • Centralise charging in a designated, well-ventilated area away from exits, fuel and combustible stock.
  • Use matched, compliant chargers and avoid charging unattended overnight where possible.
  • Inspect batteries on a schedule and remove any that are swollen, damaged or impact-affected from service immediately.
  • Document everything as part of your WHS obligations.

Train for containment, not heroics

UL's Fire Safety Research Institute has demonstrated that traditional suppression tactics are less effective on battery fires than on conventional ones (UL Research Institutes, n.d.). The safe workplace response is therefore: detect early, contain, evacuate, and call 000 — not extended firefighting. Australia's emergency-response research community continues to refine structured frameworks for EV incidents, reflected in EV FireSafe's ongoing work on response procedures (EV FireSafe, 2025).

Equip the depot

Match equipment to your risk profile:

The 4L Extinguisher + Heavy-Duty Battery Blanket bundle is a practical containment-first starting point for a charging bay, and our fleet fire safety page can help tailor coverage across multiple sites.

Make the plan explicit: Every staff member should know that a battery fire means evacuate, account for people, and call 000 — and that containment equipment is there to protect property and buy time, not to be used for prolonged firefighting.

References

  1. EV FireSafe. (2025). EV fire & charging research. https://www.evfiresafe.com/research-ev-fire-charging
  2. NSW Government. (2026, April 7). NSW leads the country in battery reform to fight fires and pollution. https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/nsw-leads-country-battery-reform-to-fight-fires-and-pollution
  3. UL Research Institutes. (n.d.). Fire safety of batteries and electric vehicles. Fire Safety Research Institute. https://fsri.org/research/fire-safety-batteries-and-electric-vehicles
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