Resource library

Battery-fire resources for counsel and adjusters.

Written for attorneys and adjusters, not engineers. Use these to protect evidence, speak the language in a deposition, and make good early decisions on a battery-fire file — whether or not you ever retain us.

Most requested

Evidence-preservation checklist

What to do — and what never to do — in the first hours after a lithium-ion fire. The single most important factor in whether a battery fire can be reliably investigated is how the evidence is handled before the expert arrives.

A one-page field reference covering scene safety, documentation, cell handling and storage, chain of custody, and spoliation risk. Built to print, keep in the file, and share with adjusters and first responders.

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Inside the checklist

Scene & personal safety first
What to photograph — and from where
Handling & storing damaged cells
Preserving chargers & accessories
Chain of custody & spoliation
When to call an investigator

Quick guide

The first 72 hours after a battery loss

The window when the right moves preserve a case — and the wrong ones quietly end it.

Hours 0–24 · Secure

Confirm the scene is safe and watch for reignition — damaged lithium-ion cells can re-enter thermal runaway hours or days later. Do not discard, submerge, or "clean up" suspected battery components. Photograph everything in place before anything moves.

Hours 24–48 · Preserve

Leave the device, pack, and charger where they are and isolate the area around them — moving damaged cells risks reignition, injury, and spoliation. If a genuine safety hazard requires relocation, have qualified personnel do it. Identify and protect the charger and any accessories in place — they are evidence too, and often decisive.

Hours 48–72 · Coordinate

Identify potentially responsible parties and put them on notice so joint examination can be arranged and spoliation claims avoided. Engage a qualified investigator before any destructive examination. Keep purchase, charging, and usage history intact.

Deposition-ready

Battery-fire glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in lithium-ion fire matters — useful when prepping a witness or reading an expert report.

Thermal runaway: A self-sustaining chain reaction in which a cell's internal temperature rises uncontrollably, releasing more heat than it can shed — driving venting, fire, and propagation to neighboring cells. The core failure mechanism in most lithium-ion fires.
Cell, module, and pack: A cell is the individual battery unit; modules group cells together; a pack assembles modules with electronics and housing. Fires usually originate in a single cell and spread outward.
Battery management system (BMS): The electronics that monitor and control a battery — voltage, current, temperature, and charge balance. How the BMS performed (or failed to) is frequently central to causation, especially in larger systems.
Thermal propagation: The spread of thermal runaway from one failing cell to adjacent cells or modules. Whether a system contained a single-cell failure or allowed it to cascade is often the key question in an ESS loss.
Venting: The release of hot, flammable gases when a cell's internal pressure exceeds its design limit. Venting can precede visible fire and often leaves physical signatures useful in origin analysis.
Internal short circuit: An unintended electrical connection inside a cell — from a manufacturing defect, contamination, dendrite growth, or physical damage — that can trigger thermal runaway. A common underlying cause.
Origin and cause: The two-part conclusion of a fire investigation: origin (where the fire started) and cause (the sequence and factors that produced it). NFPA 921 is the recognized guide for reaching them.
NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations — the widely recognized guide for fire investigation methodology, built on the systematic testing of hypotheses against physical evidence.
Exemplar testing: Examination or testing of an identical, undamaged product ("exemplar") to establish how it behaves normally and to compare against the evidence item.
Spoliation: The loss, alteration, or destruction of evidence. In battery-fire matters it can occur innocently — cleanup, disposal, or an unshared destructive exam — and can carry serious legal consequences. Early preservation is the guard against it.

Guides & explainers

Plain-English guides.

Short reads on the questions that come up most in battery-fire matters — written for the people handling the file.

Guide

Why the battery that started the fire often survives it

The counterintuitive reason origin cells are frequently recoverable — and why that matters for your case.

Read the guide