What happened?
UL Research Institutes’ Fire Safety Research Institute released a new report examining fire safety hazards linked to e-mobility devices such as e-scooters and e-bikes. The research focused on lithium-ion battery thermal runaway incidents inside passenger railcars, where smoke, heat, and limited evacuation space can create dangerous conditions very quickly.
The experiments used a full-size intercity passenger railcar and measured heat exposure, toxic gases, visibility, and evacuation conditions. The findings are important beyond railcars because many facilities now face similar risks from battery-powered mobility devices in parking areas, storage rooms, entrances, warehouses, and shared public spaces.
Lithium-ion battery fires are not ordinary small fires. A failing battery can move from early smoke to aggressive fire conditions very fast, which means detection, awareness, storage control, and emergency planning are becoming more important for building safety.
Why this matters for projects
E-scooters, e-bikes, and other battery-powered devices are increasingly used by workers, visitors, tenants, and the public. In many buildings, these devices may be charged or stored in locations that were not originally designed for this type of fire risk.
The FSRI report noted that people close to a burning device could become exposed to severe heat and smoke quickly, and that smoke spread across the railcar in a short time during testing. This makes the issue relevant to evacuation routes, enclosed parking levels, transport facilities, storage areas, and any location where multiple battery-powered devices may be present.
What should clients review?
- Identify where e-scooters, e-bikes, batteries, or chargers are stored or used inside the facility.
- Avoid charging battery-powered devices near exits, staircases, escape routes, or high-traffic corridors.
- Use clear policies for charging locations, storage areas, and allowed device types.
- Review fire detection coverage in rooms or areas where lithium-ion batteries may be present.
- Train site teams to recognize early battery failure signs such as smoke, hissing, overheating, or unusual odors.
What Falcon Power recommends
Facility owners, consultants, and safety managers should treat lithium-ion battery risk as a planning issue, not only an incident response issue. The right approach starts with identifying the hazard, controlling where devices are charged, improving awareness, and checking whether the existing fire alarm, emergency lighting, signage, and safety equipment are suitable for the location.
For projects with parking areas, employee transport zones, logistics spaces, maintenance rooms, or public-access buildings, the presence of e-mobility devices should be considered during safety reviews and emergency planning.
This article is an editorial brief prepared by Falcon Power based on a public release from UL Research Institutes’ Fire Safety Research Institute. It is not a copy of the original report. For the full technical details, refer to the original FSRI source.