On September 5, 2024, firefighters in Escondido, California, rushed to the scene of a large-scale battery storage project. One of the containerized BESS units at the site had ignited.
Energy Storage News reported on the story as an example of a “well-managed” fire incident. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the owner, worked closely with the Escondido Fire Department. Together, SDG&E and the fire department dealt with the fire “effectively and in an exemplary manner,” according to expert Nick Warner, head of the Energy Safety Response Group (ESRG). The fire caused minimal impact, air quality remained safe, and no lives were put at risk.
What made the response effective? As the article recounted, the fire department “let the affected unit burn out while monitoring it very closely, rather than trying to fight the flames.” Firefighters also evacuated local people in the area while the fire was burning.
Escondido’s fire department had been trained in BESS emergency response. As a result, they were able to manage the fire according to industry best practices. They also knew what preventative and fire safety measures were built into the technology. Finally, they had the knowledge to guide appropriate decisions about risk to the public.
Battery emergencies are different from many of the most common incidents firefighters encounter.
As the Escondido fire department had learned, an effective response to the SDG&E BESS fire required monitoring, control, and evacuation tactics–rather than traditional extinguishing methods. Education was the key to their effective response.
Welcome to BESS Firefighter Safety and Emergency Response!
These short, video-based training modules that follow are designed to provide a foundation for safe, knowledgeable, and effective responses to BESS incidents.
Check the Materials tab for this course.
It has important information you’ll need to get the most out of the training.
The training should take approximately 45 minutes to complete.
This course covers fundamentals, and it’s intended to guide emergency response planning with your local BESS owner/operator.
- You’ll be introduced to BESS site layouts and components.
- You’ll gain basic insights into battery chemistry (focusing on LFP and NMC lithium-ion technologies),
- You’ll gain a working knowledge of BESS safety systems and standard emergency response protocols.
- Finally, you’ll discern which actions you should avoid in responding to BESS incidents.
After viewing five video-based modules, you’ll complete a review, followed by a final course assessment. A score of 90% or better (27 out of 30 questions) results in a certificate of completion for the course.
Completing this training should equip you with essential information and basic practices for BESS emergency response, laying the groundwork for ongoing communication and planning with your local site owner/operator.
Before taking this course, please obtain a copy of your local BESS owner/operator's Emergency Response Plan (ERP). Later, you'll be asked to do the following:
- Upload your digital copy
- Complete a thorough review of that document when we get to the review module for this course.