A Preview of the NFPA Battery Safety Code
By Ed Rutkowski
NEW ORLEANS (June 3, 2026)—In October 2024, a fire at a lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Fredericktown, Missouri, led to the evacuation of residents and, ultimately, complete destruction of the 225,000-square-foot building. The cause of the fire has not been determined, but investigators say that thermal runaway played a role. The incident, and many others like it, illustrates the need for guidance in the safe manufacture, storage, recycling, and disposal of batteries.
The National Fire Protection Association is attempting to meet this need through NFPA 800, Battery Safety Code. In an educational session yesterday at AIHA Connect, Benjamin Craig, a member of the NFPA 800 committee, discussed the main features of the code and the complex issues the committee is still grappling with.
NFPA 800 is a “provisional standard,” a designation used by the American National Standards Institute for guidance that undergoes an accelerated development process. Unlike regular standards, which take many years to develop, provisional standards follow a timeline reserved for work that “may result in an improvement to the safeguarding of life,” in ANSI’s words. Another difference is that provisional standards are not intended to be permanent; as Craig explained, NFPA 800 will be in place for two years only.
NFPA 800 is intended to ensure the safety of batteries through their entire life cycle. Work on the code was initiated in response to feedback from industry that existing standards such as NFPA 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems, were not adequate to meet current needs related to batteries.
Craig had hoped that NFPA 800 would be approved before his presentation. But a preliminary vote held in April did not achieve the required affirmation from three-fourths of committee members, triggering another review cycle. “The biggest thing to take away from this,” Craig said, “is that the provisional standard process is working.” The standard is now expected to be released this autumn.
It will likely be the subject of significant interest. Elements of NFPA 800 will apply to many uses of batteries, with specific requirements for laboratories, research and development, assembly, testing, storage, recycling, disposal, and decommissioning. The main focus of NFPA 800 is lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. One chapter covers the storage of battery-powered vehicles and mobility devices, while another focuses on battery-powered equipment such as forklifts. The committee has had many discussions, Craig said, on the proper placement of material related to electric vehicles: does it belong in the section on storage, or the one on charging? And should the code specify a threshold for how many EVs can be stored in a single facility? If so, what should that threshold be?
Of particular importance is the “facility hazard analysis,” or FHA, which requires users to consider whether activities performed near stored batteries could present a fire hazard. Craig related that when a preliminary draft of NFPA 800 was shared publicly, the committee received more than 1,200 comments, many of which concerned the FHA.
The goal, Craig said, is for NFPA 800 to be a roadmap users can follow to find other standards that spell out requirements for certain situations.
For more information about batteries and the transition to new energy sources, read “Navigating the New Energy Frontier” in The Synergist.
Ed Rutkowski is editor in chief of The Synergist.