Suppressing battery hazards

Peter Van Gorp looks at the risks posed by lithium-ion in battery rooms and data centres, and considers how best to mitigate them using design and suppression.

There has been an increase recently in the number of fires that are being reported in the press in relation to Li-ion batteries. The issues related to these fires stem from either defective battery installations or insufficient or improper fire suppression being specified.

I recently acted as an expert witness in a case where the applicable guidance documents, at first sight, did not require the provision of fire suppression in battery rooms. The applicable guidance document was written not so long ago but did not consider the specific risks inherent to Li-ion batteries. In another case, clean agent fire suppression was specified as coverage for battery rooms. The specification was again based on the applicable standards and guidance documents. Unfortunately, a fire occurred, and the clean agent system did not extinguish or control the fire.

These apparent faults in the specification and guidance documents could have been avoided if there had been a fire engineering analysis, or by looking a bit further and consulting other standards and literature, and delving a bit deeper into the subject. What is surprising, and at the same time concerning, is that a dedicated fire engineering team was involved in the design and construction of the project.

In this article, I illustrate the specific risks inherent to Li-ion batteries, the potential risk mitigations and the guidance from codes and standards. I will conclude with my opinion on what the role of the fire engineer should be in dealing with projects where specific risks exist such as those inherent to Li-ion batteries.

As part of the Fire Protection Association's continuing commitment to increase fire safety awareness across the built environment, a number of informative feature articles are available to read on our website. You can read the full article here.