With over 25 years’ experience as a firefighter and now part of a group that specialises in battery storage safety, Paul Rogers at Energy Safety Response Group knows all about fire safety from both sides of the fence.

Update 2 August 2021 (2): The fire was declared under control at 3:05pm local time today, CFA said.

Testing and accreditation group DNV is going to build a Battery Safety Laboratory at Twente Safety Campus, a specialised complex in the east Netherlands dedicated to developing safety innovations and procedures.

Safety is a consideration when it comes to any energy asset and lithium-ion batteries are no exception. Fires are rare, but do happen, particularly when you consider how much juice lithium storage systems can pack into a fairly small space. In this panel from the Energy Storage Summit 2021, experts including firefighter Charlie Pugsley of London Fire Brigade talk about the strategies stakeholders should be using today and in the future to ensure a safe industry for all.

Re-examining older and potentially hazardous battery energy storage systems should be an “essential” tool in fire prevention, according to a panel of industry leaders.

Tom Bensen, Nick Warner, Ryan Franks and Michael Bowes from energy storage and fire safety expert group Energy Safety Response Group (formerly Energy Storage Response Group) discuss some of the most important aspects of creating a safe battery storage industry.

The US energy storage industry needs to “rise to the challenge” of safety sooner rather than later and build relationships with fire service and first responders based on clear lines of communication and trust, Energy-Storage.news has heard.

More up-to-date training could have prevented severe injuries sustained by four firefighters in the April 2019 fire and explosion at battery storage facility in Arizona, according to a report into the incident from UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute (UL FSRI).

An April 2019 fire and subsequent explosion which caused injuries to firefighters and destruction of a grid-scale battery storage system in Arizona likely started with an internal cell defect that caused the “preventable” incident, analysis has found.