EV fire safety for salvage and storage yards

The risk

In a yard, the EV fire risk is a damaged car with a compromised battery, sitting there hours or days after the impact. A damaged pack can go into thermal runaway with nobody touching it, and one that looks out can reignite hours or days later.

Common practice is a quarantine area, well away from buildings and other vehicles, for at least 24 to 48 hours with the vehicle monitored. Check what your insurer requires, because insurers often set a longer period.

What a Fire Cloak does

Quarantine comes first. The blanket is the backup if a quarantined car does catch fire. The Fire Cloak 8 x 6m goes over the car, pulled into place by two people, and holds the flames, heat and smoke underneath. That protects the vehicles stacked or parked nearby while the fire service is on its way. A lithium battery fire makes its own oxygen, so the blanket will not put it out. Its job is to contain it.

It is certified to DIN SPEC 91489:2024-11 and rated A2-s1, d0 under EN 13501-1. The 8 x 6m size covers saloons, hatchbacks, compact vans and smaller 4x4s. It is made in the UK and comes in a waterproof IP65 bag, which matters for a blanket that lives outdoors near the quarantine area.

Before you buy

Call 999 first. Use the blanket only to a written procedure, and only with people trained on it, because NFPA and UL FSRI research and an IAFF advisory (June 2025) warn of explosion risk from gas building up under a blanket on a battery fire. Untrained staff should keep people back and wait for the fire crew.

For the rest of the kit a yard needs around damaged EVs, see our lithium spill kits and workshop safety range, and the guide EV fire blankets: what garages need to know on quarantining a damaged car.