What travels with the battery

This article was co-authored by Hazmat Line and EV Fire Company. For more information about the authors, please refer to the biography section at the end of the article.

By the time the fire is out and the road is reopening, everyone wants the incident to be over. With a compromised electric vehicle (EV) or e-mobility battery, that is often the point where the risk starts moving to someone else.

But the battery is still going somewhere — and so is everything responders learned about it.

The vehicle may be loaded onto a flatbed. The battery may end up at a tow yard, insurer, municipal storage site, recycler, or disposal stream. What matters is not only where it goes. It is what information goes with it.

As battery-response knowledge evolves, so must the information surrounding an incident: what responders carry in written guidance, what is asked during the emergency call, and what is passed forward into towing, storage, monitoring, and the next stage of custody.

If the condition history does not travel with the battery, the next person in the chain may be managing a hazard they were never properly told about.

1. What Responders Are Learning

Electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery fire guidance is improving, but the practical gap is often what happens after the visible fire is controlled. Fire crews are getting better information on suppression, cooling, high-voltage hazards, and manufacturer emergency response guides. That matters, but it does not answer every operational question once the vehicle is ready to leave the scene.

Recent full-scale work from the UL Fire Safety Research Institute (UL FSRI) has been useful because it tests some of the assumptions that show up on the fireground. A visible flame can be knocked down while the battery pack still has to be treated with caution. Water remains the best cooling agent, but that does not mean every water application is equally useful. If water cannot reach the cells that are actually involved, crews may be using large volumes without changing what is happening inside the pack. At the same time, that water can create a runoff problem that now has to be managed.

Fire blankets are another example. They can have a role, especially for exposure protection, loading or transport risk reduction, or situations where water access or runoff control is a major constraint. But they are not a magic fix. A blanket does not stop thermal runaway inside the pack, and it can create its own hazards if flammable gases continue to accumulate underneath it and are later exposed to air during lifting, disturbance, or removal. That concern is even greater indoors or in confined spaces, but it is not limited to those settings. If an organization is going to use blankets, the written standard operating procedure matters more than the equipment. Crews need to know when to deploy one, when not to, how to monitor for gas accumulation or renewed battery activity, and how to manage the blanket without creating a bigger problem during disturbance or removal.

The current Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) lithium battery and EV fire language is a starting point, not a complete operating model. We understand the ERG is built for the initial phase of a dangerous goods transportation incident and cannot become a full tactical manual. But EV Fire Company has raised concerns with CANUTEC / Transport Canada that the existing EV/lithium battery section should be refined as current research and field experience continue to develop. Responders need clearer practical cues around battery condition, uncertainty, water application, fire blanket limitations, runoff, movement, isolation, monitoring, and handoff.

The field reality is that apparent knockdown is not the same as battery stability. A battery may be fire-involved, heat-exposed, mechanically damaged, submerged, venting, leaking, or simply uncertain. Those distinctions matter because the next person in the chain may be a tow operator, storage yard, insurer, environmental contractor, recycler, or municipal authority. "Unknown" should not quietly become "safe" just because the scene is being released. If the uncertainty is captured and passed forward, the next custodian can manage it. If it is not captured, the system is guessing.

As guidance evolves, the question is not only how the active fire is handled. It is what condition the battery is in when responsibility changes hands, and what the next party needs to know.

2. What Risk Travels with the Battery

EV Fire Company uses three simple questions before a compromised EV or e-mobility battery is released from the original response scene:

How was the battery classified?
Was it involved in fire, exposed to heat, damaged in a collision, submerged, leaking, venting, or unable to be assessed with confidence?

What risk travels with it?
What is the thermal history, visible or audible battery behavior, runoff concern, smoke or vapor exposure, personal protective equipment and decontamination concerns, and remaining uncertainty?

Who owns the next control phase?
Is the tow operator prepared? Can the receiving site isolate and monitor it? Who accepts custody, and what controls are expected after transfer?

Those are not paperwork questions. They are risk-control questions. The handoff is the point where an incident can either stay controlled or become someone else's surprise.

A vehicle that has been involved in an EV battery incident may look quiet during loading. That does not mean the history no longer matters. A tow yard or storage site may never see the original smoke, heat, runoff, odor, popping, hissing, pack intrusion, or uncertainty. If those details are not captured while people still remember them, they are often gone for good.

The goal is not to overcomplicate every vehicle fire. The goal is to preserve the facts that could change the next decision. If the battery was never involved, say that. If involvement is uncertain, say that too. Uncertainty is not a weakness in the record. It is one of the things the next custodian needs to know.

These questions highlight something important. A battery incident is not only a fireground problem. It can become a custody problem. Every transfer creates another opportunity for important information to disappear.

3. Where the Emergency Call Fits

Hazardous-material emergency response is rarely a one-way exchange. During an incident call, the emergency-response information provider is gathering information from the scene while also providing information back to the people managing it. With lithium-ion batteries, that exchange becomes especially important because the product may be identifiable while the condition of a specific battery or package is changing.

The call begins with familiar fundamentals: Who is calling? Where is the incident? What happened? Is anyone injured or exposed? Is there fire, smoke, vapor, heat, or another immediate concern? What product or battery is involved, and what shipping papers, Safety Data Sheet (SDS), manufacturer information, or other resources are available? From there, the questions can become more battery-specific. The goal is not to diagnose the battery remotely, but to build the best available picture of the incident and provide relevant emergency-response information back to the scene.

A simplified call might sound something like this:

Caller: "We have a damaged package containing a lithium-ion battery for a robotic inspection unit. The carton was crushed during handling. Part of the battery housing is visible and appears deformed, the package feels hot, and employees reported hissing and white vapor coming from the box."

Emergency-response specialist: "Is anyone injured or exposed? Is the package still producing heat, vapor, smoke, odor, hissing, popping, or other signs of battery activity?"

Caller: "One employee was standing nearby when it started venting, but there was no direct contact. The area has been cleared, the fire department is on scene, and the package has been isolated from the other freight."

Emergency-response specialist: "Do you have the shipping information, battery identification, SDS, or manufacturer information available? Has the package been moved or opened, and have responders reported temperature readings or changes in condition?"

Caller: "The package has not been opened. We have the shipping paperwork and can get the product information from our shipping department. Responders are monitoring it and are asking for more information about the battery and the hazards associated with the shipment."

Emergency-response specialist: "Can you confirm the UN number and proper shipping name from the shipping paperwork?"

Caller: "The shipping paper shows UN 3480, lithium ion batteries."

Emergency-response specialist: "Thank you. And do you have the manufacturer name or product name for the battery itself?"

Caller: "Yes, it's listed on the paperwork — I can read that to you now."

With the UN number, proper shipping name, and product identification confirmed, the emergency-response specialist locates the Safety Data Sheet for the battery and begins pulling relevant hazard and response information to share with the caller and responding personnel.

Emergency-response specialist: "Based on the SDS and the information you've provided, here is what the responding personnel should be aware of regarding the hazards associated with this battery and this incident…"

After passing the relevant information to the caller:

Emergency-response specialist: "I will document everything reported — the damaged packaging, the deformation, the heat, the hissing, and the white vapor, the employee in the vicinity, and the current status as responders are monitoring on scene. I will also notify the shipper and responsible party so they are aware this incident has occurred. As this situation evolves, it is important to keep monitoring the condition of the battery — understanding its hazard profile doesn't stop when the visible activity slows down. A damaged lithium-ion battery remains a risk through recovery, transport, and disposal, and everyone who handles it from this point forward needs to be aware of that."

Once the initial facts are established, the specialist reviews the available SDS, shipping information, manufacturer guidance, and other applicable emergency-response resources. Relevant information is communicated based on conditions at the scene, while new observations are documented as the incident develops.

This is the two-way role of the emergency-response telephone service. The facility and responders provide real-time observations that a reference document cannot supply, while the shipper may provide battery specifications or product information that was not initially available. Hazmat Line connects those pieces with the technical information on hand and maintains a record of what was reported and when.

The next person handling that battery may never have spoken with the original caller or witnessed the heat, vapor, physical damage, response actions, exposure concerns, or uncertainty at the scene. For everyone who touches it afterward, the record of what happened — and what wasn't yet known — may be the most important safety tool they have.

Hazmat Line has developed a battery program that adapts its incident reporting process to capture the details of that exchange. A battery-specific section of the incident report documents the nature of the event, observed battery and package condition, heat or fire involvement, smoke or vapor, physical damage, leakage, exposure concerns, control measures, and other relevant observations. It can also preserve what remains unknown, rather than allowing uncertainty to become an assumption.

After the immediate emergency, Hazmat Line will follow up with the shipper to gather any information that was not available during the call — additional battery or shipment details, updated incident information, photographs or documentation when appropriate, and clarification about how the package, battery, or equipment was ultimately handled. All of that is documented and compiled into a report that is sent back to the shipper. As the damaged battery moves from hand to hand, that report travels with it — giving everyone who touches it afterward a clear picture of what happened, what was observed, and what was done.

The incident doesn't end when the call does. In that way, the emergency-response telephone service can do more than answer the initial call: it can gather critical information from the ground, pass relevant guidance back to those managing the incident, and preserve the resulting history so it can move forward when needed.

4. What Should Actually Travel with the Battery?

Not every responder, tow operator, storage facility, insurer, investigator, recycler, or environmental professional needs the same level of technical detail. But the next custodian does need enough information to understand what they are accepting.

EV Fire Company would not expect a fire crew or call center to produce a battery-engineering report at the side of the road. That is not realistic. What is realistic is a short condition-history package that can travel with the vehicle or battery.

At minimum, that handoff should capture:

• Incident type: fire, collision, submersion, charging incident, e-mobility device incident, thermal event, or unknown.
• Battery condition: no visible involvement, exposed to heat, suspected involvement, confirmed involvement, active venting or off-gassing, leaking, physically damaged, or unable to assess.
• Thermal history: last temperature check, trend if known, tool used, time since last abnormal heat, and whether heat was localized or increasing.
• Visible or audible cues: white or grey vapor, smoke, odor, popping, hissing, jetting, flame from the pack area, electrolyte leakage, or deformation.
• Suppression and control actions: water applied, where it was applied, whether a blanket or other control was used, and whether runoff or storm drains were involved.
• Exposure and contamination concerns: smoke or vapor exposure, contaminated personal protective equipment or tools, runoff contact, public exposure, and whether decontamination or medical advice was considered.
• Movement controls: flatbed or other method, loading concerns, route or escort considerations, no indoor storage expectations, and whether the receiving site was briefed before movement.
• Storage and monitoring expectation: isolation distance or separation method, access control, thermal monitoring expectation, recheck interval if set, and release criteria if known.
• Custody: who accepted the vehicle or battery, when they accepted it, and what condition information they received.

This does not make the incident perfect. It makes the risk visible. That is the difference between an informed handoff and a blind transfer.

For the emergency-response information provider, the challenge is to capture those facts reliably and preserve them in a form that remains useful after the call ends — not to create a second technical report, but to keep condition history from disappearing during the handoff.

5. The Feedback Loop

Better incident information has value beyond one call. Over time, it can reveal where details are repeatedly missing, where handoffs break down, and which battery conditions are difficult to characterize. That feedback loop matters: research improves guidance, field experience improves the questions being asked, and better records show where guidance and practice still need work.

That raises a broader question for emergency-response telephone services: as lithium battery incidents become better understood, how can the service better support every stakeholder who may encounter the incident?

The shipper may need help organizing battery information before transportation. Carriers and responders need accurate information when something goes wrong. Tow operators, storage facilities, insurers, environmental contractors, recyclers, and other downstream parties may need to understand what occurred before they became involved.

An emergency-response telephone service sits between many of those parties. Its value can extend beyond answering the initial call if the information gathered is structured, preserved, and capable of supporting the next stage of the incident.

As the industry continues to learn, emergency-call intake should evolve with it. Better questions create better records, better records create better handoffs, and better handoffs give the next stakeholder a better opportunity to understand the risk they are inheriting.

When the battery moves, the information needed to manage the risk needs to move with it.

About The Collaboration

This article was co-authored by EV Fire Company and Hazmat Line to examine lithium-ion battery incidents from two connected perspectives: the operational challenges surrounding battery condition, movement, storage, and custody, and the emergency-response information process that begins with the incident phone call. The collaboration is intended to support the continuing industry discussion about how
critical battery information can be gathered, preserved, and passed forward as responsibility changes hands.

About EV Fire Company and Ryan Verbenkov

EV Fire Company is an Ottawa-based company focused on practical EV and lithium-ion battery fire risk management for fire services, municipalities, tow and recovery operators, storage sites, and other organizations that may inherit the risk after the initial incident. The company was founded by Ryan Verbenkov and Scott Gilmore, combining Ryan's Royal Canadian Navy engineering and fire safety background with Scott's front-line firefighting experience.

EV Fire Company's work focuses on the parts of the incident that are often overlooked once the visible fire is controlled: battery condition, responder safety, transport decisions, isolation, storage, documentation, and the handoff of risk from one organization to the next.

Learn more at EVFireCompany.ca.