Switchboard and Battery Fires: What to Do in the First Five Minutes

What should you actually do if your switchboard or home battery catches fire? Get everyone out of the house, call 000 immediately, and never use water on either a switchboard fire or a lithium battery fire. Beyond that, the two situations are handled differently: a switchboard fire can sometimes be isolated safely at the main switch if it is caught early and it is safe to do so, while a home battery fire should never be approached at all, since lithium battery fires reignite and are generally left for fire crews to manage from a safe distance.

⚡ Quick Answers: Switchboard and Battery Fires

• What is the very first thing to do? Get everyone, including pets, out of the house and away from the affected area, then call 000.
• Should I throw water on it? Never. Water conducts electricity and can cause electrocution on a live switchboard fire, and it does not put out a lithium battery fire, which burns from an internal chemical reaction water cannot smother.
• Can I turn the power off myself? Only if it is genuinely safe to reach the main switch without going near flames, heat or smoke. If there is any doubt, leave it and get out.
• What kind of extinguisher works on a switchboard fire? A CO2 or dry chemical extinguisher rated for electrical fires (Class E) is appropriate if the fire is small and the board has not been isolated. Never use a water or foam extinguisher on live electrical equipment.
• What about a home battery fire specifically? Evacuate to a safe distance upwind of the battery, do not attempt to fight it yourself, and tell the 000 operator it involves a lithium-ion battery so fire crews respond appropriately.
• When does it stop being a fire brigade job and become an electrician's job? Once the fire brigade has declared the property safe to re-enter, a licensed electrician is needed to make the installation safe, assess the damage, and manage reconnection.

1. Switchboard fire: the first five minutes

If you see flames, sparking or thick smoke coming from your switchboard, get everyone out of the house immediately and call 000. Do not go looking for the source or try to inspect it up close. If the main switch is genuinely reachable without passing through smoke or getting near the fire, switching it off can cut the electrical supply feeding the fault, but this is only worth attempting if it is quick and safe. If there is any hesitation at all, skip it and get outside.

Never throw water on an electrical fire. Water conducts electricity, and if any part of the board is still live, you risk electrocution as well as spreading the fire. A CO2 or dry chemical fire extinguisher rated for electrical fires is the appropriate tool for a small, contained fire, but only use one if you can do so from a safe distance and you are confident the situation is not escalating. A fire that is growing, producing heavy smoke, or that you are not confident fighting is a job for the fire brigade, not a home extinguisher.

2. Home battery fires are a genuinely different situation

Home batteries store energy in lithium-ion cells, and a fault or damage inside a cell can trigger thermal runaway, a self sustaining chemical reaction that generates its own heat and oxygen and keeps burning even without an external ignition source. This is why a lithium battery fire behaves very differently to a normal electrical fire and cannot reliably be extinguished with a standard fire extinguisher or water.

If you see smoke, gas, unusual smells or flames from a home battery, evacuate the area immediately, moving to a location upwind of the unit, and call 000 straight away, telling the operator clearly that it involves a lithium-ion battery so the right response is dispatched. Do not attempt to move, cool or extinguish the battery yourself. Fire crews generally establish an exclusion zone around a burning lithium battery installation and, in many cases, allow it to burn out under controlled conditions rather than trying to extinguish it directly, since reignition is a genuine risk even after flames appear to be out.

3. Why you should never assume a switchboard or battery fault is minor

A warm switch, a faint burning smell, or a battery unit that seems to be running hotter than usual are all early warning signs, not things to wait out. Electrical and battery faults that lead to fire develop over time in most cases, which means there is usually a window where the problem can be caught and fixed before it becomes an emergency. If you are noticing early warning signs rather than an active fire, that is the time to call an electrician for an assessment, not after flames have already appeared. Our guide to what actually causes switchboard fires covers the early indicators in more depth.

4. What happens after the fire brigade leaves

Once fire crews have confirmed the property is safe to re-enter, the electrical installation itself still needs to be assessed and made safe before power is restored. This is emergency make safe work, carried out by a licensed electrician, and it typically involves isolating the damaged circuit or switchboard, confirming nothing else on the installation was compromised by heat or smoke, and determining what needs replacing before supply can be safely reconnected. Our guide to what a make safe electrician actually does explains this step in more detail, and our guide to testing and commissioning before power goes back on covers what gets checked before reconnection.

5. Preventing a repeat, once the immediate danger has passed

Once the property is safe and any damage has been assessed, it is worth having the whole switchboard reviewed rather than just the section that failed, since an old board with one weak point often has others building in the background. If the fire involved a home battery, the installer or manufacturer's fault investigation process should run alongside the electrical assessment, and our home battery readiness checklist is a useful reference for what a properly installed and protected system should look like.

How High Demand Electrical helps

We provide emergency electrician callouts across Sydney's West, South West and Sutherland Shire for exactly this situation: a switchboard or circuit that has faulted, overheated, or been damaged by fire and needs to be made safe before power can go back on. As a licensed local team, not a call centre, we assess the full extent of the damage, not just the obvious point of failure, and we handle the switchboard rebuild or repair once the cause has been identified. If a home battery installation was involved, we coordinate with the manufacturer or installer's own fault process as part of getting your power safely restored.

Switchboard and Battery Fire FAQs (Sydney)

Is it safe to reset a breaker that tripped during a suspected fault?

Not until the cause has been identified. A breaker that has tripped is doing its job, and resetting it without knowing why risks re-energising a fault that could still be dangerous.

Do home batteries need special fire protection when installed?

Reputable installers follow manufacturer clearance, ventilation and location requirements specifically to reduce fire risk and support a safe emergency response if something does go wrong. See our battery ready checklist for what to check before you buy or install one.

Should I call an electrician or the fire brigade first?

If there is an active fire, smoke, or a battery showing signs of thermal runaway, call 000 first, always. An electrician's role begins once the property has been declared safe, to make the installation safe and manage repairs.

Can a switchboard fire happen even with modern circuit breakers?

It is much less likely, but not impossible, particularly where a circuit has been significantly overloaded or a fault has developed at a connection point. Our arc fault detection guide covers the technology designed to catch exactly this kind of fault.

If you have noticed early warning signs at your switchboard or battery installation, do not wait for an emergency. Get an emergency electrician assessment or call 0402 559 777. If there is an active fire or smoke right now, call 000 first.