Lithium-ion fire safety for marinas, clubs and vessels
A battery failure on a berthed vessel is not a single-boat problem. Fire spreads along a marina arm, crews are working over water, and the nearest appliance is minutes away at best. We supply the equipment that lets your staff and owners act in the first few minutes, and we tell you honestly where it fits.
Where batteries turn up on the water
Marine lithium-ion risk is no longer just house batteries. Tenders, trolling motors, dive scooters, e-foils, e-bikes stored in the cabin, power tools in the workshop, drones, handhelds and portable power banks all sit on the same berth. These are the operations we supply.
Marinas and berth operators
Shared arms, shore power, fuel and a mix of occupied and unattended vessels. Your staff are the first responders whether or not that was ever the plan.
Yacht and boat clubs
Member vessels, a clubhouse, volunteer crews and often a training fleet with a rack of charging batteries in the shed.
Charter, tourism and dive operators
Domestic commercial vessels carrying passengers, with dozens of guest devices charging at once. AMSA has flagged exactly this scenario after the Conception investigation.
Commercial fishing fleets
Pot winches, haulers and deck gear increasingly run on lithium packs, charged alongside at night with nobody aboard. AMSA's own case study is a berthed charter fishing vessel destroyed by exactly this.
Ferry and passenger vessel operators
Ro-Ro decks carrying electric vehicles, plus crew and passenger devices. Marine Order 504 requires a risk assessment covering the carriage of battery electric vehicles.
Boatyards, slipways and repairers
Batteries come out of vessels damaged, swollen or waterlogged and then sit in a shed waiting on a decision. That waiting period is the highest-risk window on the site.
Boat dealers, brokers and chandlery
Display stock on trickle charge, customer trade-ins of unknown history, and retail floor space where a failure happens in front of the public.
Houseboat and hire-boat fleets
Hirers bring their own devices and charge them where they sleep. You carry the duty of care without controlling what comes aboard.
Private owners and liveaboards
House battery banks, solar storage, e-bikes on the aft deck and a tender motor on charge overnight. On a berth, your neighbour's problem becomes yours.
Why the extinguisher already on the bulkhead is not the whole answer
Nothing here says to remove your existing equipment. Your statutory extinguishers stay exactly where they are. The point is that a lithium-ion failure behaves differently, and standard marine kit was never specified for it.
Thermal runaway makes its own oxygen
Smothering is the basis of most marine firefighting. A cell in runaway generates its own oxidiser internally, so starving it of air does not stop the reaction. Fire and Rescue NSW describes these as low-likelihood, high-consequence events.
It reignites, sometimes much later
A pack that appears out can re-enter runaway hours or days afterwards. Cooling the cells below runaway temperature matters more than knocking down visible flame.
Fire moves between vessels
Marinas are unusually exposed because flame spreads to neighbouring boats on the same arm. The reason marinas have historically towed burning vessels into deep water is that there was no better option on the pontoon.
Confined spaces concentrate toxic gas
Runaway vents hydrogen fluoride and carbon monoxide. In a cabin, engine bay or lazarette, that reaches dangerous concentration long before anyone would expect it to.
Water is not simply available
Being surrounded by water does not mean you can safely apply the volume a lithium fire needs. Free surface effect, stability and the risk of downflooding all constrain what a crew can do.
Response times are longer on the water
Access along a pontoon, gate codes, tidal ramps and the distance from the road all extend arrival times. Whatever happens in the first five minutes is done by your people.
What a marina or vessel package usually looks like
Four elements, scaled to the site. A single berth needs one of each. A marina with a workshop, a fuel dock and 300 berths needs them distributed across the site. Tell us the layout and we will spec the quantities and sizes.
Lithium-ion extinguisher
Our extinguishers use a potassium acetate agent in a water carrier, designed to cool cells below runaway temperature and suppress reignition rather than simply smother flame. Certified to EN 3-7:2004+A1:2007. Three sizes: 1 L for a cabin, tender or e-mobility battery, 4 L for a deck or charging area, and 9 L for a workshop, hardstand or battery bank.
View extinguishersFire blanket sized to the risk
A blanket contains a burning item and limits spread to what is next to it. It buys time and protects the neighbouring vessel. It does not extinguish thermal runaway, and we will not tell you otherwise. Sizes from 2 m x 2 m for e-bikes and tender batteries up to heavy-duty vehicle blankets for deck and vehicle-deck use.
View fire blanketsContainment bags
For the pack that has swollen, been dropped, been submerged or stopped holding charge, and now has to sit somewhere until it can be dealt with. Two sizes: a dual-layer bag for e-bike and tender-scale batteries, and a flat bag for laptops, handhelds and tool batteries.
View containment bagsSignage, mounting and crew awareness
Wall brackets and compliant location signage so equipment is found under pressure, plus our online Lithium Battery Fire Safety on Boats course: seven lessons, 45 to 60 minutes, with a certificate. It is awareness level, not accredited competency training, and it complements your safety management system rather than replacing it.
View the boats courseWhat we do for marinas, clubs and fleets
We help you specify, not just purchase
Pontoon arms, fuel dock, workshop, hardstand, storage shed and office all carry different risk. Tell us how the site is laid out and where batteries are charged, and we will tell you what belongs where and in what size.
Trade pricing for marinas and clubs
Volume pricing for multi-berth rollouts, club member programs and dealer resale, plus block seat pricing on both online courses. Ask us for a schedule.
Procurement and compliance documents
Certificates, safety data sheets and specification detail for your insurer, surveyor or safety management system. We are also listed on buy.nsw for government and council procurement.
Checklists and guides on request
Site audit checklists and charging protocol templates you can adapt for your own operation. We supply and specify equipment. We do not deliver installation or hands-on training.
Where this equipment sits, stated plainly
- Our extinguishers are certified to EN 3-7:2004+A1:2007. Our heavy-duty fire blanket fabric is classified A2-s1, d0 to EN 13501-1:2018 by SGS.
- No extinguisher sold in Australia carries an Australian lithium-ion rating, ours included. AS 1841 has no lithium-ion classification yet. Until it does, European testing is the highest benchmark available.
- This equipment is supplementary to your statutory fire safety measures and your survey requirements. It does not replace them.
- Fixed lithium-ion battery installations on commercial vessels are covered by the National Standard for Commercial Vessels Sub-section C5B and require an approved battery management system. Carriage of battery electric vehicles on Ro-Ro vessels requires a risk assessment under Marine Order 504. We supply portable response equipment, not installation or survey services.
- If a battery is in thermal runaway, get people clear and call 000. Everything we sell is about the minutes before that, and about stopping it reaching the next vessel.
Request a quote
Tell us the shape of the operation and we will come back with the right equipment and pricing. No obligation, and we will tell you where you do not need something.