With the importation of electric vehicles on the rise, the maritime sector is grappling with a pressing challenge: is Australia ready to respond to a lithium battery fire aboard vessel?
This was the focal point of a recent Port Operations Committee Meeting held by Ports Australia in Brisbane, where harbour masters from across the country convened with first responders and industry experts to explore strategies for mitigating these “low frequency, but high consequence” hazards.
From this collaborative session, the urgency to develop effective response protocols has never been clearer.
“It was important to bring together our port members, first responders and government agencies that are responsible for how we as a nation would respond to an electric vehicle fire on board a vessel,” said Ports Australia CEO Mike Gallacher.
“If we’ve got a vessel at sea, response agencies like fire and rescue are going to have to be quick, given the speed of these fires. We’re only going to see more of these incidents as the world moves towards this technology.”
Lithium-ion batteries can pose a significant risk if thermal runaway occurs. These fires cannot be extinguished by conventional means and there is no standard procedure for how to respond.
In most cases, water is useful for cooling these batteries, but it can’t penetrate the battery pack and neither can other extinguishing mediums.
Ports Australia invited experts in this field to share their knowledge and what they’ve observed about lithium-ion battery fires, to ensure that Australia’s ports are on the front foot when it comes to response.
District Officer John Henderson at the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services has been involved with testing various mitigation methods on electric vehicle fires.
“We’ve been asked to share information that we’ve learned from things we’ve done at our fire service, and it’s also very valuable for us as a fire service to learn what happens in the ports and where we might be called to deal with an incident,” said Officer Henderson.
As well as an uncontrollable blaze, these battery fires also produce dangerous gases which pose a major safety concern in enclosed spaces.
Inspector Daren Mallouk from Queensland Fire Department’s Fire Investigation Unit says he’s responding battery fires regularly and due to the unique nature of these fires, they cannot be extinguished with conventional methods.
“The gas that they produce is highly flammable but also highly toxic as well,” said Mr Mallouk.
Adding further challenge, Daren says that other factors such as wind and weather make responding to these incidents onboard a vessel even more of a risk. To Daren, getting the right people in the room to discuss these challenges, and how to overcome them, is a crucial step in the right direction.
“Everyone’s after the same information, to understand why things are failing and how we can combat them in efficient and safe way. The networking that goes on at things like this is invaluable.”
Ports Australia also invited Captain Adrian Scales, director of Europe at Brooks Bell to present at this committee meeting, who has been working with lithium-ion batteries for years.
Notably, Adrian was involved in the investigation into the Fremantle Highway incident, when a car-carrier caught ablaze in 2023.
“Once the fire has started and developed it’s very difficult to put it out,” said Captain Scales.
“When it comes to ships, the biggest challenge is containment and understanding your ship and the space. It’s understanding that if you do have a battery fire or a lithium ion release of toxic gas, what the consequences are in that space.”
In addition to the rising importation of electric vehicles, Adrian noted that there are many products being moved on ships that use lithium-ion batteries, such as e-scooters and e-bikes.
“It’s not necessarily the EVs. It’s a rare occurrence we see with the cars and the bigger units, but it’s the unregulated scooters and e-bikes that are coming off the internet that may not have the same regulations but have just as devastating consequences when they go into thermal runaway.
“The biggest challenge is we don’t know all the consequences – we’re still learning. When you look at legislation, the IMO are probably five or six years behind getting any legislation in place that we can work from. The reasons I do my presentations is to educate as many people as possible.”
Ports Australia supports wider collaboration on this topic with the hope that ports can become well-prepared to respond, and that appropriate steps are taken to prevent incidents in the first place.
“Governments around the world need to maintain the very highest standards to make sure that transportation of these vehicles is safe. We can’t have them being built in backyards, these must be made to a high standard,” Mike Gallacher said.
Mark Morrow, executive director – response, Australian Maritime Safety Authority, says that while AMSA runs the national response team for environmental emergencies, there are no protocols in place for response to battery fires at sea.
“We rely heavily on the IMO to set standards and policies in place,” said Mr Morrow.
“They’re not even at the point yet where they’ve established that documentation so we’re working with what we know. So, there’s a lot of problems, but we need to solve it together.”
