Battery Safety Science Webinar Series
May 25, 2021

Fire Service Considerations – Investigation of AZ Li-ion ESS Incident


On April 19, 2019, one male career Fire Captain, one male career Fire Engineer, and two male career Firefighters received serious injuries as a result of cascading thermal runaway within a 2.16 MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (ESS) that led to a deflagration event.

During this recent Battery Safety Science webinar installment, Dr. Steve Kerber and Dr. Mark McKinnon provided an overview of the incident, the contributing factors determined through the investigation, and recommendations for the fire service, code officials, utility companies, and manufacturers to prevent similar incidents.

Download presentation from this webinar.