F-500 EA® Application
Electric forklifts, charging stations and lithium-powered machinery are becoming standard in Australian warehouses and manufacturing facilities — and with them comes a fire risk most sites aren't fully prepared for.
The Risk
Electric forklifts are everywhere now — warehouses, distribution centres, manufacturing floors, cold storage facilities. They're quieter, cheaper to run and better for the environment. But the lithium-ion battery packs that power them carry a fire risk that most workplaces haven't properly planned for.
When a lithium battery goes into thermal runaway — whether from damage, overcharging, a manufacturing fault or just age — it doesn't behave like a normal fire. It generates its own oxygen internally, meaning you can't smother it. It produces toxic gases. It can reignite hours after you think it's out. And it spreads fast if nearby batteries catch.
The charging station is often the highest-risk point. Forklifts and machinery sit plugged in for hours overnight, unattended, in areas surrounded by racking, product and structure. One fault and the consequences can be catastrophic.
The Solution
F-500 EA® is one of the few agents in the world proven to cool a lithium-ion battery fire fast enough to stop thermal runaway from spreading — and prevent re-ignition.
How It Works
The reason standard water or dry powder doesn't work well on lithium fires is that you can't get the battery temperature down fast enough — the cells keep generating heat internally. F-500 EA® penetrates the battery casing and rapidly absorbs and transfers heat at a molecular level, pulling the temperature below thermal runaway threshold and keeping it there.
Your Options
For charging bays and high-risk areas, a fixed Diamond Doser® system integrated with your existing sprinkler infrastructure gives you automatic protection the moment something goes wrong. For sites that need flexible first-response capability, our F-500 EA® extinguishers, TKO nozzles and QAMU units give your team the tools to attack a battery fire immediately.
High-Risk Area
The charging bay is where your risk concentrates. Multiple batteries, sustained high-current charging, often overnight, often unattended. It needs proper protection.
Most workplace charging areas aren't designed with fire suppression in mind. Forklifts get plugged in at the end of a shift, the doors close, and nobody thinks much about what happens if a cell fails at 2am. The answer, in many cases, is a fully involved battery fire by the time anyone knows about it.
A properly installed F-500 EA® fixed system in your charging bay gives you automatic detection-to-suppression response. The Diamond Doser® connects to your existing water supply and sprinkler heads — no separate suppression infrastructure required. The moment a head activates, F-500 EA® is automatically proportioned into the water stream and delivered directly to the fire.
It's genuinely one of the most practical upgrades a warehouse or manufacturing site can make given how quickly the industry is transitioning to electric machinery.
Who This Is For
The transition to electric in Australian workplaces is well underway. Here's who should be thinking seriously about lithium fire protection right now.
High electric forklift density, busy charging bays and high-value stock under the same roof. One battery fire without the right suppression can write off an entire facility.
Electric pallet jacks, order pickers and forklifts moving through production areas. Battery fires here don't just damage equipment — they halt production and put workers at risk.
Cold chain operations rely heavily on electric forklifts — combustion engines can't operate in low-oxygen cold store environments. Lithium fire protection here is critical.
Large format retail and grocery distribution centres run fleets of electric handling equipment around the clock. Charging bay protection is a non-negotiable for operations this size.
Battery-powered tools, electric hoists and mobile equipment — combined with flammable liquids and reactive metals already on site — make for a complex fire risk environment.
Third-party logistics operations store and handle lithium battery goods on behalf of clients — making them responsible for the fire risk of the products moving through their facility.
Get Protected
Whether you're looking to protect a charging bay, an entire warehouse floor, or just want to understand what a lithium fire risk assessment looks like for your facility — give us a call or shoot us a message. We'll give you a straight answer.
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