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Senate hears proposal for voluntary EV/hybrid sticker program to warn firefighters; committee asks for privacy and technical details
Summary
Senate Bill 916 would create a voluntary program for electric and hybrid vehicle owners to request a sticker and for the DMV to share registration lists with fire departments so dispatchers could flag addresses with EVs.
Senate Bill 916 would create an optional program under which owners of electric or hybrid vehicles could request a sticker indicating an EV is housed at a particular address; the DMV would share a list of registered EVs with local fire departments so dispatch systems could display the information when responding to incidents.
Sponsor Senator Burke said the program is voluntary and intended to help firefighters prepare for vehicle fires with different suppression needs. "The state fire marshal will create a sticker if people want that. It's optional. And the DMV will send a list of all registered electric and hybrid cars to the fire departments to let them know…," Burke said.
Paul Valletta, representing the Rhode Island Firefighters, described operational challenges firefighters face with lithium-ion battery fires, telling the committee that EV battery fires can reach extremely high temperatures and require substantially more water and staffing to extinguish. "A regular gas-powered vehicle usually reaches 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. These electric cars…when their batteries catch fire, that goes up to between 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit," Valletta said, and he added that EV incidents can demand tens of thousands of gallons of water and sustained on-scene staffing.
Witnesses and senators discussed sticker placement and privacy. Valletta said the sticker would be placed on a garage door or other exterior location at the address, not on the vehicle battery housing. Committee members asked whether a license plate or in-vehicle marker would suffice; Valletta and others said plates or exterior stickers might not be visible in smoke-filled garages, and dispatch integration would be most useful.
The DMV raised concerns about providing address-level registration data and privacy restrictions; senators referenced a prior House-side change to the bill to address federal privacy concerns. Committee members asked the sponsor to work with the DMV and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to resolve data-sharing and privacy issues.
The committee voted to hold SB 916 for further study and to direct the sponsor and staff to refine language for privacy protections, sticker definition and data-sharing protocols.
Ending: The committee held the bill and asked for clarified language on sticker placement, privacy-compliant data-sharing procedures, and whether a mandatory plate or voluntary sticker approach is preferable.
