Battery energy storage fires force community evacuations and no fire department knows how to fight them

Lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) fires produce toxic hydrogen fluoride gas and can reignite days after being extinguished, as demonstrated by the January 2025 Moss Landing fire in California that forced the evacuation of 1,200 residents for 24 hours. The U.S. has deployed nearly 35,000 MW of BESS, but fire departments have almost no training or equipment for these incidents. So what? First responders who approach a BESS fire with standard firefighting tactics risk exposure to toxic gases that cause severe lung damage, and water application can intensify thermal runaway. So what? Communities near proposed BESS installations organize opposition, blocking projects through zoning and permitting challenges, as seen in Springfield, Missouri in 2025. So what? Developers must site BESS further from population centers, increasing transmission costs and reducing the grid-balancing value that makes storage economically viable. So what? Without sufficient storage, renewable-heavy grids cannot manage intermittency, leading to more curtailment of solar and wind generation. So what? Billions in renewable generation investment produces fewer usable electrons, undermining the economics of the entire clean energy transition. The problem persists because NFPA 855 standards lag behind deployment speed, there is no federal BESS fire response training mandate, and thermal runaway detection systems are not yet reliable enough for early intervention.