Parking Garage Fires Intensify as Vehicle Composition Changes

The increasing prevalence of plastics and electronics in modern vehicles is heightening the risk of intense, hard-to-extinguish fires in parking garages, prompting property owners to reassess their fire protection strategies, according to a report from Zurich Insurance Group.

According to data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), plastics accounted for approximately 9.6% of the average vehicle’s weight in 2021, compared to less than 3% in the 1970s. This higher plastic content can lead to higher heat release rates, longer burning durations, and greater risk of fire spread in parking garages compared to older vehicles, the report noted.

Electric vehicle (EV) batteries can further intensify garage fires.

“When you combine lithium-ion batteries and plastic, fires have the potential to cause greater damage, jumping to other vehicles very rapidly,” said Bill Ingram, vice president of technical operations for Zurich Resilience Solutions. Additionally, the NFPA reports that suppressing an EV-related fire can take two to three times as much time as suppressing an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle fire, and doing so may require exponentially more water.

Enclosed and underground garages amplify fire intensity and complicate response. In these structures, heat gets trapped inside rather than escaping as it would in open-air garages, the report noted. This makes fires tougher to extinguish and can impair the garage’s structural integrity.

Business Interruption Potential

The evolving fire risks in parking garages also can present business interruption exposures for property owners and insurers.

“The situation becomes particularly concerning when a garage is connected to or below the main building,” said Stephen Penwright, large property technical director at Zurich North America. In these scenarios, business interruption losses become a growing possibility if garage fires impede access to the building above.

Compounding the issue is the toxic smoke generated by EV battery fires, which requires costly specialized cleanup before a building can be reoccupied after a fire, the report stated. However, the changing risk landscape is also giving rise to opportunities in the form of revised fire protection standards and innovative risk mitigation solutions.

Mitigating the Risks

One of the most effective measures to mitigate garage fire risks is the installation of automatic sprinklers in parking garages, particularly on any level with a roof, the report stated.

The NFPA has recently elevated the fire hazard classification for parking garages and now calls for sprinklers to be installed in all new garages, regardless of size or configuration.

Researchers are also conducting more studies to determine the optimal sprinkler design density needed to effectively prevent vehicle-to-vehicle fire spread in modern parking facilities, per the report.

Access the full report from Zurich here. &