EV charger fire safety in garages: what makes sense

Garage fire protection is a system, not a set of gadgets

A garage’s fire safety follows from its design: the division into fire zones, ventilation and smoke extraction, escape routes, the fire alarm system (SSP, where there is one) and the fire-fighter’s power cut-off switch (PWP). These elements are interlinked and described in the building’s fire safety instructions — changing one affects the others.

That is why any change affecting these conditions should be assessed by a certified fire-safety expert. The guidelines for garages with electric-car charging issued by CNBOP-PIB (the Polish Scientific and Research Centre for Fire Protection), the National Headquarters of the State Fire Service (PSP) and the Polish Association of New Mobility (2nd edition, 2025) are not legislation, but their direction is clear: early fire detection, limiting fire spread and good conditions for rescuers — matched to the risk of the specific building, not taken from a just in case list.

Requirements vs recommendations: what is mandatory?

Discussions about garage fire protection mix up three kinds of requirements that carry very different weight:

• Legal requirements — mandatory. They come from Poland’s Construction Law, the Fire Protection Act, the technical building regulations and the Interior Ministry regulation on fire protection of buildings, and for the chargers themselves from the Electromobility Act and the regulation on technical requirements for charging stations and points. Examples: a fire-fighter’s power cut-off switch (PWP) in fire zones above 1,000 m³, smoke extraction in enclosed garages above 1,500 m², fire extinguishers, and a UDT inspection of a station used to provide a charging service.
• Guidelines and expert recommendations — not mandatory. The CNBOP-PIB, KG PSP and PSNM guidelines, papers by fire-service experts and manufacturers’ guides are good practice, not legislation. A publication on its own creates no obligation, but it is worth knowing because fire-safety experts and designers rely on it. Insurers’ conditions are a separate matter — they can be binding, but under the policy, not the law.
• The fire-safety expert’s recommendations — the investor’s decision, but with consequences. When agreeing a design (Article 6b of the Fire Protection Act), a certified fire-safety expert checks compliance with the regulations and cannot impose obligations the regulations do not provide for. The expert can, however, recommend measures beyond the minimum, such as detection above the charging bays or local fire separations — whether to use them is up to the investor or property manager. If a fire protection device is chosen, it is installed according to a design agreed with the expert, and it must then be inspected and maintained at least once a year (Article 4 of the Act, § 3 of the Interior Ministry regulation).

Alternative solutions and what follows

It also works the other way round: if a building cannot meet a legal requirement, an alternative solution may be used — based on a fire-safety expert’s report agreed with the regional commander of the State Fire Service (Article 6a of the Fire Protection Act). Such a solution must not worsen the building’s fire protection conditions.

In this light, no regulation requires a fire blanket, sprinklers above the chargers only, partitions between bays or red buttons at every charger just because charging is added to a garage. Such measures can appear in the design as the expert’s recommendation or the investor’s choice matched to the building’s risk. They become mandatory only as part of an alternative solution agreed with the State Fire Service — they then replace a legal requirement and must be implemented.

A fire blanket for residents is no substitute for firefighters

An ordinary fire blanket, like the one in a kitchen or office, is meant for small fires — a frying pan or clothing. It is simply too small for a car.

For cars, large fire blankets are used: they measure several dozen square metres, weigh around 30 kg and take at least two people to deploy. The fire service tests them and increasingly carries them, and PSP experts point out that they can be part of a garage’s equipment — for on-site staff who, in the first phase of a fire, isolate the burning vehicle from neighbouring ones. However, a blanket does not extinguish a fully developed battery fire (cells in thermal runaway produce their own oxygen), and rescue procedures do not name it as a means of extinguishing.

The problem starts when the blanket hangs in a housing community’s garage for residents:

• Approaching a burning car in an enclosed garage means exposure to dense, toxic smoke (including hydrogen fluoride) and the risk of a sudden jet of flame from the battery. Without respiratory protection, this is life-threatening.
• The blanket must be deployed quickly and tightly, without an air pocket underneath. A bystander who has never practised it usually will not manage.
• A blanket on the wall gives a false sense of security and encourages people to fight the fire instead of evacuating.
• A blanket makes sense where trained staff are on site — security, a commercial car park, a workshop — and where its use is described in the fire safety instructions. In a housing community’s garage, the rule for residents is simple: raise the alarm, evacuate, call 112.

Sprinklers over the chargers only: not on your own

A sprinkler system in a garage works. Research and fire-service experience show that water lowers the temperature around a burning car and limits the spread of fire to neighbouring vehicles. The problem is not the idea itself but a shortcut execution: a few sprinkler heads above the charging bays, connected to the building’s water supply.

• A fixed fire-extinguishing system is designed as a whole (e.g. to PN-EN 12845): with a guaranteed water supply of adequate pressure and flow for the required time, an alarm valve station and activation signalling. A building’s water supply usually cannot provide this, especially when several heads open at once.
• Sprinklers are fire-protection equipment: the design is approved by a fire-safety expert, and the installation requires acceptance and regular maintenance. A makeshift setup does not meet these requirements and should not be treated as protection.
• A fire may start in a car that is not parked at a charger — protecting a few selected bays does not protect the garage.
• Water used on a battery fire is contaminated, among other things with lithium and heavy metals. Drainage of firefighting water also has to be addressed in the design.

Partitions between charging bays: not without a design

Partitions made of boards, sheet metal or mesh between bays look like a simple way to fence off electric cars. But such a partition is not a fire separation, and it can make conditions in the garage worse:

• It changes the flow of air and smoke — ventilation and smoke extraction (e.g. jet fans) were designed for an open hall, not a row of boxes.
• It can obstruct fire detectors and sprinklers or narrow the area they cover.
• It narrows passageways and hampers evacuation and fire-service access to a burning car — rescuers must be able to approach and apply water from several sides.
• A partition made of combustible material increases the fire load, and a partition without a fire resistance classification (EI) and sealed joints will stop neither fire nor smoke.
• Changing the garage layout may require a building notification or permit and an update of the fire safety instructions.

When do separations and sprinklers make sense?

PSP experts point to fixed fire-extinguishing systems and local fire separations as ways of limiting fire development in its early phase — especially where charging points are densely concentrated, in hard-to-reach parts of the garage and on underground levels.

The difference is that these are solutions based on a risk analysis: designed and approved by a fire-safety expert, built from products with proven fire resistance or as a complete extinguishing system linked to the building’s fire alarm system. They are not an add-on put up in passing while installing chargers.

Extra red buttons at chargers usually make no sense

A red emergency button at every charger seems like an obvious safeguard. In a building with a fire-fighter’s power cut-off switch (PWP), it usually adds nothing. In Poland, a PWP is required in fire zones with a volume above 1,000 m³ (§ 183 of the technical building regulations); it is located at the main entrance or the supply connection, it is signposted — and it is what the fire service uses. In garages with a fire alarm system, the chargers’ power supply is additionally cut automatically after an alarm.

• Cutting the power does not extinguish a battery. A traction battery fire is sustained by the energy stored in the cells — switching off the charger will not stop it. The charger itself is disconnected in the event of a fault by its own protective devices anyway: residual current protection with DC detection and overcurrent protection.
• A button next to a burning car is out of reach — nobody should approach the fire to press it.
• Duplicating the PWP complicates the fire scenario: rescuers act according to the PWP and the building’s instructions, not according to a dozen buttons scattered around the garage.
• Easily accessible buttons tend to get pressed by accident or as a prank. Charging stops, and every reset means a call to the property manager or the service team.

When is a separate switch justified?

• The building has no PWP (e.g. a fire zone of up to 1,000 m³) — the fire-safety expert may recommend a dedicated switch for the charger circuit. One, signposted, at the garage entrance, not at every bay.
• Outdoor stations, e.g. DC fast chargers in a car park — an emergency switch at the unit is a common solution there.

What really improves safety?

• An opinion from a certified fire-safety expert and an approved design — protection matched to the risk of the specific garage.
• Linking the charger circuits to the PWP and — where there is one — to the fire alarm system, so that charging is cut off automatically after an alarm.
• Early fire detection: detectors in the charging area and, in larger buildings, also video-based systems or temperature monitoring.
• Chargers located close to the entrance, away from escape routes and staircases, with access for the fire service.
• A correct installation: chargers instead of sockets, residual current protection with DC fault protection, load management and post-installation measurements.
• Wheel stops or bollards protecting chargers from impact, signage for charging bays and switches, fire extinguishers and an update of the fire safety instructions.

The scope of protection depends on the building, the number of charging points and the existing installations — it is determined by a fire-safety expert after analysing the building. This article does not replace a fire-safety opinion.