I have spent my career responding to emergencies, and I evaluate every risk the same way: against the evidence. So when I hear the claims circulating about battery storage in New York, including on Staten Island, I weigh them the way I weigh any fire risk.
One claim now circulating is that a battery facility near waterways could send chemicals like PFAS, often called ‘forever chemicals,’ and other contaminants into local waterways. It has not been established that these chemicals are present in these systems at all. And even if they were, the risk of contamination depends entirely on how a facility is built and how a fire is fought. New York’s code accounts for both.
Under New York state fire code, updated at the end of 2025, an outdoor battery installation is not flooded with water to put out a fire. These systems are built as self-contained, containerized units, spaced so that a failure in one is contained by design, rather than by hoses. The response favored under New York’s fire code is to isolate the affected unit, keep a safe distance, allow it to burn under controlled conditions and monitor it.
By Wayne Melton