More on the risk posed by Lithium Batteries

Last week I posted an article on the risk posed by lithium batteries following a number of claims which LMI Claims have recently been appointed to.

One of our claims experts Georg Froeschl wrote to say:

Hi Allan,

I spoke to a building consultant I use here in Canberra (and have done so for nearly 20 years) about this issue.

An electric vehicle battery will burn for at least 10 hours and cannot be extinguished by conventional firefighting methods. The only thing the fire department can do is move the burning vehicle/scooter/bike/etc. into an open space and let it self-extinguish. The point is that more strata unit occupiers are looking for vehicle and scooter/bike charging stations in strata building. In basements there is generally no space for vehicles allocated except the allocated parking to each unit. For bikes and scooters the arrangements seem to be at best ad hoc.

According to my consultant no residential strata building in Australia is designed to withstand a 10 hour fire rating. By extension the building will have sustained significant basement level structural damage.

The mitigation proposed in our conversation was that each EV charging station is bunded with a brine solution up to about 1.2 metres to encapsulate the battery which is generally at the bottom of the vehicle. The fire burns through a casing to the brine and the brine acts as a cooling and extinguishment agent. These would need special fire and heat rated walls and ventilation. They would need to be near exits so the vehicle and its containment can be removed in the event of an incident.

Clearly a retrofit to buildings will be expensive and not shared enthusiastically by internal combustion engine vehicle owners. Regulation for basement / under-building charging stations is required urgently to acknowledge the hazards you refer to. Our conversation concluded that no certifier would approve an installation (where this regulation) and the design standard for this type of mitigation installation needs to be addressed.

Kind regards,

Georg

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This is clearly a risk that as an industry we need to address and I hope this series of posts helps move the discussion along.