State Fire Marshal: personal protective equipment: battery fires.

Assembly Member Patel, with coauthors Ramos and Senator Rubio, proposes a time-limited framework under the State Fire Marshal to develop PPE recommendations for lithium-ion battery fires, to be built in consultation with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

The measure creates a working group tasked with examining personal protective equipment used when responding to lithium-ion battery fires, including whether different PPE should apply to various fire contexts and how decontamination practices at the scene are performed. The group must include representatives from the State Board of Fire Services, academia, health and safety experts, a DOSH representative, and a labor organization representing utility workers, with the exact membership determined by the State Fire Marshal. The group is directed to consider the latest PPE technologies to limit exposure to lithium and other heavy metals, technologies for cleaning PPE post-incident, and current on-scene decontamination practices, and to deliver its recommendations to the Legislature by September 1, 2026. The proposal limits the reporting obligation’s duration, making the requirement inoperative after January 1, 2030 and establishing a sunset for the overall provision on January 1, 2031, with no explicit appropriation specified.

Context and relationships to existing law frame the measure as an additive, non-binding study mechanism rather than an immediate overhaul of PPE standards. The proposal acknowledges the State Fire Marshal’s general authority to standardize fire protective equipment but adds a separate, time-bound process to develop PPE-related guidance specifically for lithium-ion battery incidents. The findings accompanying the bill emphasize firefighter cancer risks and particular hazards associated with lithium-ion battery fires, framing the working group as a targeted response to those concerns while leaving future regulatory action to subsequent legislative or administrative decisions.

Implications for stakeholders and policy trajectory remain contingent on future steps. Fire departments, PPE manufacturers, labor representatives, and occupational-safety regulators stand to engage in the working group’s deliberations, with potential influence on procurement choices, training, and decontamination protocols if the Legislature acts on the recommendations. The measure does not itself impose binding standards or penalties, and its fiscal impact is unspecified, signaling that any cost considerations would be assessed in a fiscal analysis and any ensuing actions would rely on later legislative or regulatory action beyond the current framework.