UL's Fire Safety Research Institute published full-scale EV fire experiments in August, and the recommendations are blunter than most vendor training. Standard handline water is the first choice, flooding the pack doesn't work, and fire blankets carry an explosion risk when the battery is involved.
Educational reading for clinicians. Follow your current protocols and local guidance.
Evidence Instead of Sales Pitches
Most EV fire training I've sat through was built around a product: a blanket, an additive, a nozzle. In August 2026, the UL Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) released evidence-based response considerations from full-scale experiments, and they're refreshingly plain.
The research ran in three phases:
1. Free-burn fires on nine vehicles, six EVs and three gas vehicles, picked from the best-selling models, to see how they burn with no intervention.
2. Manual water suppression under realistic fireground conditions, with packs charged to 100% and suppression starting seven minutes after thermal runaway was confirmed.
3. Fire blankets with and without water, and water with foam additives.
What FSRI Recommends
The handline is the first choice. Water from a standard handline, with no specialized equipment or added agents required.
Flooding the pack doesn't work. In FSRI's words, "copious water on the vehicle and battery pack is ineffective due to vehicle construction." The pack is sealed and armored for a reason, and that same armor keeps your water off the burning cells.
If the battery is confirmed involved and initial suppression fails, use water for exposure protection and to keep the passenger compartment from re-igniting while the battery burns out.
Be careful with blankets. The experiments, and related Fire Protection Research Foundation work, identified a potential explosion hazard when blankets are used on an EV fire with active battery involvement. Once a blanket is deployed, don't reposition it. Indoors or in confined spaces, FSRI says blankets "can present significant deflagration risk." That's a real caution for parking-garage responses, where blankets have been marketed hardest.
Overhaul and the Tow
- Full structural PPE and SCBA through overhaul. Off-gassing doesn't stop when the flames do.
- Assume reignition, unless the battery is so clearly damaged it's completely burned out.
- Escort the tow truck with a suppression unit.
- Quarantine the vehicle at least 5 m (16 ft) from anything else at the tow yard.
| Tactic | FSRI position |
|---|---|
| Standard handline water | First choice |
| Additives / foam | Not required |
| Large volumes aimed at the pack | Ineffective |
| Fire blanket, battery involved | Potential explosion hazard; don't reposition |
| Fire blanket, indoors or confined | Significant deflagration risk |
| Overhaul | Full PPE and SCBA |
| Tow yard | Escort; 5 m (16 ft) quarantine |
How This Fits What We Already Wrote
In my piece on EV fire suppression, I compared blankets and encapsulating agents. FSRI's work doesn't make blankets useless, but it narrows where they belong and adds a hazard we hadn't weighed: deploying one over a battery that's actively going. For entrapment calls, the high-voltage cautions in battery extrication still apply. And the stranded-energy lessons from battery energy storage fires are the same reason FSRI tells us to assume reignition.
The short version for the next car fire: pull a handline, protect the cabin and exposures, don't drown the pack and don't throw a blanket over an active battery inside a garage.
Sources
Jonathan B, career paramedic
Published October 23, 2026