Focus: Fire Protection in Battery Storage Facilities
General
Battery storage systems are essential to securing the energy transition. Yet incidents in California and Thuringia demonstrate that fire protection is anything but a side issue: In Moss Landing (USA), 1,500 residents had to be evacuated in 2025 due to toxic gas emissions. In Isseroda (Thuringia), the fire department fought for more than twelve hours to contain a container fire.
Fire at the Moss Landing battery storage facility operated by Vistra Energy on January 16, 2025, Photo: Guy ChurchwardFire in a shipping container with batteries in Isseroda (Weimarer Land) on the morning of June 10, 2024, Photo: Johannes Krey
Such events are not isolated cases, but a wake-up call for the industry:
Individual fires may be rare, but their consequences range from large-scale evacuations to firefighting operations lasting several days.
Regulations provide a framework, but the specific characteristics of battery storage systems demand additional, tailored concepts.
Effective solutions lie in an integrated fire protection approach: structural (e.g. spacing, non-combustible materials), technical (gas extinguishing systems, battery management systems), and organizational (fire service infrastructure, training exercises).
Why an integrated approach involving planning, operation, and emergency services is essential is explained by Susanne Oesterheld (Consulting Engineer, MBBM-BSO) in our new technical article.
