05.3 EV Safer Charging System
What is the EV fire risk at charging sites?
Our research indicates approximately 15% of all global incidents occur while the electric vehicle is connected to charging. In the majority of cases, cause is unknown, but suspected to be battery fault, exposure to another fire or submersion in water for an extended period.
It's an important point that a normally operating EV with no damage to the battery pack, connected to an electrically compliant charging unit that has been installed by a qualified person to the relevant wiring standards for your region cannot cause an EV battery fire to occur.
What is EV Safer Charging System (EV SCS)?
The EV SCS supports EV charging sites to identify and minimise their risk of an EV battery fire whilst charging, including at home, strata/body corporate, workplaces and public charging at shopping centres, petrol stations, carparks and in buildings.
It builds on the Australian Building Code Board Advisory Notice for Electric Vehicles In Buildings, which was developed in 2023 with support from our team. The EV SCS can also be layered on top of recommendations from guidance available in other countries.
The ABCB note contains sensible, low cost, low visual impact EV fire safety considerations for building developers, owners & managers, & reduces the risk of sub-standard charging units & installation as the rapid rollout of charging infrastructure continues.
Three levels of EV charging safety:

Home and apartment EV charging
Basic EV charging fire risk awareness
For safer installation and use of EV charging in your home or apartment complex, you can:
-
Step 1: Follow the ABCB Guidance
-
Step 2: Download, print and install our EV Charging Sites Safety poster
Download ABCB Guidance for EV charging in buildings
Download EV Charging Site Fire Safety poster
Recommended for strata/body corporate: Complete our online, self-guided EV SCS course for data and resources for working with your fire engineer, fire agency, insurance company and residents.
Apartment, workplace and publicly available commercial charging
EV Safer Charging System
For safer installation and use of EV charging in your home or apartment complex, you can:
-
Step 1: Follow the ABCB Guidance
-
Step 2: Download, print and install our EV Charging Sites Safety poster


Level 3
EV Agency Expert
Format:
-
3 day train the trainer
-
Up to 4 EV FireSafe instructors
-
Capped at 12 attendees
In this session, Emergency Responders will cover:
-
All knowledge from Level 1 and Level 2 Electric Responder training
-
IAIIM EVABC™ for incident management
-
First on scene? Identify, Assess, Immobilise, Isolate and Monitor your hazards
-
Diagnose EV on fire vs EV battery fire
-
Conduct an EV Assessment of Battery Condition for safer management and handover to secondary response
-
-
Risk of secondary ignition
-
Decontamination basics
-
Road rescue extrication theory
-
An additional road rescue demonstration can be conducted with EV FireSafe instructor input where host agency has access to an EV
-
All attendees:
-
Are competent to deliver the Level 1: ER Awareness to anyone in their agency
-
Have access to the Electric Responder Pocket Guide and Training Booklet
-
Have data-driven knowledge to write or update their agency SOPs
-
Will be competent to lead EV Skills Drills for their agency
-
Have 12 months membership to the EV Agency Expert platform, including:
-
Access to our team - email, phone or virtual meeting any time
-
Access to ongoing training updates and webinars (conducted to suit different time zones)
-