Lithium batteries in your warehouse: fire rules

Treat lithium stock as its own fire risk. Give it a separate zone or cabinet, keep it away from other goods, and write down how much you store and where. Put damaged and returned packs in quarantine and have them collected quickly. YouPower Recycling, our Battery Disassembly Center, takes in lithium batteries from cars, home batteries and bicycles. How intake and screening work is on our page about lithium battery recycling. Below: the rules, the limits, the set-up and the questions an insurer asks.

It rarely starts as a battery project. A wholesaler adds cordless tools to the range. A fulfilment centre signs a client who sells e-bikes. A distributor takes on spare packs for forklifts. A year later, pallets of lithium stand between the cardboard and the plastic, and nobody knows how many kilowatt-hours are in the racks.

Then the risk engineer of the insurer visits, or the fire service reviews the permit. The question is no longer "are these batteries safe?", because the maker may call them "virtually impossible" to set on fire. The question is: what happens to the rest of the building when one of them does? A lithium fire spreads to neighbouring cells, can flare up again and makes toxic smoke. Without an answer, you risk extra conditions, a higher premium or a claim that is disputed.

Why is a stock of lithium batteries a different fire risk?

Because a failing lithium cell makes its own heat, and passes it on to the next cell. This chain reaction is called thermal runaway: a fire in the battery that is not easily stopped.

Mechanical damage, heat, overcharging, deep discharge and short circuits can all start it, the French prevention institute INRS explains. A new battery can also be damaged: a dropped carton or a crushed pallet is enough. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service warns that a damaged battery can overheat and catch fire without warning.

Sources: INRS (2022); Dutch government guidance on PGS 37 (IPLO); Attentia (re-ignition); VLAREM II article 4.1.12.1 via OVAM (extinguishing water).

Sprinklers do help: they cool the surroundings and slow the spread. But INRS still advises keeping lithium stock a few metres away from other combustible goods, even where an automatic extinguishing system is installed. Does the chemistry matter? A warehouse policy treats all lithium stock with the same care, whatever the cells. Our article on LFP, NMC or sodium-ion explains the difference.

Which rules apply to storing lithium batteries in Belgium?

There is no Belgian law with fixed limits for storing new lithium batteries. The rules come from general duties: your fire risk analysis, your environmental permit and the fire safety advice that goes with it.

• VLAREM (Flanders): the Flemish Department of Environment states that storing loose batteries is not classified in the VLAREM list. Storing waste batteries is, under heading 2.
• If your site holds an environmental permit: VLAREM II article 4.1.12.1 asks the operator to prevent fires and provide detection. Firefighting is organised in consultation with the fire service.
• Well-being at work: every employer makes a risk analysis. Attentia, an external prevention service, advises naming lithium-ion risks explicitly in the fire risk analysis.
• Emergency plan: Attentia also advises writing the location of charging points and the maximum storage capacity into the emergency plan.
• Wallonia and Brussels: the same logic applies. The permit and the advice of the fire service set the conditions for your site.

For waste batteries, the rules are stricter and more precise. OVAM sets out storage measures for waste lithium batteries. Our article on what a company must do with old lithium batteries covers the disposal duties. Batteries that are installed and working, such as a business battery on your site, follow yet other rules. See our article on fire safety, permits and insurance for a business battery.

What does the Dutch PGS 37-2 ask, and why is it quoted in Belgium?

PGS 37-2 is the Dutch guideline for storing lithium-containing energy carriers: batteries in phones, laptops, e-bikes and vehicles. It has legal force in the Netherlands only, but it is the most detailed public rulebook close to home.

That is why Belgian suppliers, advisers and warehouse operators quote it. The first version dates from December 2023; the current version 1.1 dates from April 2026. It only applies above a quantity per fire compartment, and that quantity depends on the type of battery.

The guideline then works with typical storage situations by size. Up to 300 m² is the lightest case. Between 300 and 2,500 m², the area is divided into sections of at most 300 m². Larger areas need extra measures; the Dutch institute for public safety NIPV studied those for compartments above 2,500 m² in 2024.

How do you set up a safe storage zone for lithium batteries?

Keep lithium stock together in one marked zone or in fire-resistant cabinets, cool, dry, in its packaging and away from other combustible goods. The table combines the INRS advice with the PGS 37-2 approach.

Sources: INRS, general prevention measures for lithium batteries (November 2022); PGS 37-2:2023; Attentia (2026); evofenedex (2024).

Do e-bikes, cordless tools and other products with a battery count too?

Yes. PGS 37-2 covers batteries inside products as well: phones, laptops, e-bikes and vehicles. A pallet of cordless drills or scooters is lithium stock, even if the carton says "tool".

• Count what is inside. Ask suppliers for the battery weight or energy per product, so you can add up kilograms or kWh per zone.
• Keep products in their carton. The packaging protects terminals and absorbs knocks.
• Light vehicles need more room. INRS advises larger distances for vehicle and machine batteries than for small packs.
• Demo and repair units are a separate case. A used or repaired product has an unknown history; store it apart from new stock.
• Your own forklifts charge elsewhere. Charging your fleet belongs in a charging zone, not next to the stock. Our article on charging forklifts with lithium batteries covers that side.

Do you run a bike shop or a light-EV dealer rather than a warehouse? Our article on storing and handing in e-bike batteries in a bike shop is written for you.

Returned, dropped or recalled batteries: what goes into quarantine?

Every battery that was dropped, crushed, swollen, hot, leaking or returned as faulty goes into quarantine until someone has checked it. INRS advises separating damaged batteries from the others and removing them quickly.

The low limit says it all: a damaged battery is far more likely to start a fire than a boxed new one. A quarantine spot can be small: a fire-resistant container or cabinet, outdoors or near an outside door, away from anything that burns. OVAM gives about 3 days as the guideline for handing damaged waste batteries to a licensed recycler.

How do you recognise damage, and what do you do in the first hour? And how does a damaged battery travel under ADR? Our article on a swollen or damaged lithium battery at your company explains it.

What will your insurer and the fire service ask about your lithium stock?

They will ask for figures and a plan: how much lithium you store, where, how it is protected, and what happens when one pack fails. Prepare these points before the visit.

• Inventory: kilograms or kWh of lithium per zone, split into loose batteries, products with batteries, and damaged or returned stock.
• Location: a floor plan with the lithium zone, the distance to other goods, the fire compartments and the exits.
• Storage conditions: temperature, charge level on delivery, packaging, stacking height.
• Detection and extinguishing: what detects a fire in the zone, who receives the alarm, and what the fire service has advised.
• Quarantine and returns: where doubtful packs go, who decides, and who collects them.
• People: who may handle damaged batteries, which training they have, and how the emergency plan names the maximum storage capacity.

Insurers may ask more than the guideline does. The Dutch logistics association evofenedex notes that above 2 tonnes PGS 37-2 requires a fire control system, "unless the insurer demands something else". Always check your fire policy for conditions on battery storage, and report a change in your stock before the next renewal, not after an incident.

What changes for your stock under the EU Battery Regulation?

Mainly labels and information, not the way you store. The European Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 phases in new duties for batteries placed on the market.

Sources: OVAM (articles 13 and 74 and annex VI of Regulation 2023/1542); Regulation (EU) 2025/1561.

Our article on fire safety of a business battery explains the battery passport in more detail.

What happens when you contact YouPower Recycling about battery stock?

We start with what you have and in which state, not with a price list.

1. Step 1: You tell us what is in stock or in quarantine: type of battery or product, number and weight. Is it damaged, returned or simply unsellable? Photos help.
2. Step 2: We tell you how to keep it safe until it leaves your site.
3. Step 3: Intake at the Battery Disassembly Center. We determine the type and features of the battery, assess its condition and check how far the cells are damaged. If necessary, we take additional safety measures.
4. Step 4: Screening for a second life or end of life, safe disassembly by specialists, then shredding into copper, aluminium, heavy carbon and black mass.