2026 Conference Program

This class highlights Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) research on characterizing the chemical exposure health hazards that firefighters face when responding to vehicle fires. It is well known that firefighting activities can expose firefighters to many occupational hazards, and those exposures are associated with long-term health risks including cancer. Fires involving lithium-ion batteries in vehicles continue to present unique challenges to the fire service due to the difficulty in suppressing the fires and the characteristics of the smoke they produce. FSRI's research has worked to characterize these chemical hazards by examining (1) the differences in smoke composition between electric vehicle (EV) fires and internal combustion engine vehicle fires and (2) fireground exposures during suppression of EV fires. This CLASS will discuss how different fire suppression techniques (including water, water with additives, and fire blankets) affect what is produced in the surrounding air and smoke, what gets on firefighters' PPE, and the potential health concerns related to the exposures during EV fires. We will combine these results with data on the effectiveness of different suppression operations to provide tactical considerations for firefighters during and after emergency responses.