New training for EV crashes amid fiery battery fears

Firefighters will undergo new training to respond to crashes involving electric vehicles.

The new program will also be freely available to other emergency service workers and volunteers in NSW.

It comes as electric vehicle sales increase while firefighters in the state battle intense, toxic blazes caused by lithium-ion batteries at a rate of about five per week.

The training will cover risk mitigation and safe working practices for incidents involving electric vehicles as well as firefighting and rescue techniques.

Developed with Fire and Rescue NSW, the training consists of online modules and is among other "microskills" courses being released by TAFE NSW focusing on the renewable energy sector.

The NSW government wants to encourage uptake but crashes involving the battery-powered vehicles can present unique challenges, Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said.

"The increasing presence of EVs on our roads means our emergency responders must adapt and expand their response capabilities," he said.

More than 65,000 emergency responders can access the electronic vehicle incident response training, including police, paramedics, rescue and response volunteers and incident response crews on major road networks and tunnels.

All Fire and Rescue NSW firefighters, including those on-call, will be required to complete the training over the coming months.

An exploding lithium-ion battery sparked a fire that killed two people in what firefighters believe are the first deaths linked to a battery fire in NSW earlier in March.

A compromised battery at a Teralba townhouse near Newcastle went into "thermal runaway", overheating and emitting toxic gases before exploding in flames, Fire and Rescue NSW said.

Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said the fatal case appeared to confirm what firefighters had been "fearing for a while" after a rise in battery fires.

Dozens of firefighters were required when an electric bike battery caught fire on the third floor of a 10-storey apartment building in Sydney's southwest, one of four battery-linked fires on Thursday.

Firefighters also responded to a fire on the Central Coast where an electric vehicle charging station caught fire among the incidents.