By Adam Swift
Fire Chief James Cullen and Captain Kevin O’Hara appeared before the city council Monday night to present a safety briefing on a proposed battery energy storage system on Muzzey Street.
The fire department officials highlighted best practices for safety at the facility, as well as gave an update on talks with Flatiron Energy, the company proposing the modular battery storage development at 0 Muzzey St. The briefing was called at the request of Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley.
Mayor Patrick Keefe noted that these types of facilities are beginning to be built across the state and the country.
“This is something that has come to our attention over the past few years,” said Keefe. “More recently, this one proposal, the company has been checking to see if they have viability in the city of Revere. We have not entertained any formal agreements, we have not signed any formal agreements; they are very much still in the planning stages.”
The mayor said that before anything is made official with the project, the city wanted to make sure the fire department was fully on board and can give assurances that they can protect the residents of Revere.
“I feel confident that our fire department … is equipped with the best knowledge, with the most updated equipment and training, that they would be able to learn more about these over the past year, and they did just that,” said Keefe. “We want to make sure that if it’s happening in Revere that we’re mitigating all risk to the residents, to the visitors, to the homes and the businesses of our community.”
Cullen said that with the increased demand on the power grid, solutions are being proposed, one of which is battery energy storage facilities.
“These facilities are being proposed in the state of Massachusetts, and are already in the planning stage or under construction in nearby cities and towns,” said Cullen. “In October of 2025, the mayor asked that I meet with Flatiron Energy to discuss any fire safety concerns that I had. Several members of my command staff and I had an initial meeting with the company to discuss our personnel, equipment, and training needs to ensure that our members and the public would be protected in the event of a fire or another emergency incident at the proposed facility.”
Cullen said his team also discussed needed improvements to the city infrastructure that would be required to operate the facility on Muzzey Street, namely water supply upgrades and site access.
“On April 8, we had a follow-up meeting with Flatiron representatives and discussed progress on the plans and our needs to ensure that any incident that does take place can be dealt with safely,” said Cullen.
The fire chief also noted that Flatiron representatives are planning to meet with the council to give a presentation on the project.
Cullen said he has talked to Flatiron about the upgraded water mains that will be needed in the Muzzey Street area. In addition, Cullen said the department will need a high capacity pumper apparatus in the area.
“We’re hoping to have some mitigation in a future agreement about that,” said Cullen.
In addition, the chief said the department will need complete 360-degree access to the site, and he said Flatiron is looking at ways to address that.
“We also spoke to them about putting in a fixed fire suppression system, which are monitors we would be able to pump into if we needed to if there was a fire in the facility and we needed to direct water onto any of the units up there, “ said Cullen.
As for hazardous materials as a result of the project, the chief said the smoke and gases produced by these types of fires are the same as any other typical house fire the department would handle.
“Many people don’t realize when there’s a building or a house fire, all kinds of hazardous materials come out of those fires these days; everything is plastic, everything is chemicals,” said Cullen. “So we’re used to dealing with this and we have been dealing with it for a long time.”
If there was a fire, Cullen said the department does have monitoring equipment to monitor the air for residents.
“Due to the required setbacks from the facility, we do not anticipate any direct fire exposure to any resident homes up there,” said Cullen. “It is over 300 feet to the nearest battery structure from any homes.”
Cullen noted that the fire department is proactive when it comes to training, and that several department members have trained on battery storage facilities in Nevada.
O’Hara expanded upon how the department would fight a fire if one were to happen on Muzzey Street.
“When you get these batteries catching fire, we start protecting exposures and try to bank the smoke down,” he said. “That smoke is toxic, just like a house fire.”
The only time firefighters would put water on the battery units themselves would be if they notice if the fire in the battery unit is starting to take off to other units.
“We’re going to surround the areas, protect exposures, make sure smoke does not go to the neighborhood, break it down as much as possible until it burns out,” said O’Hara. “That’s the cleanest way of doing it.”
O’Hara said there are also procedures in place to make sure hazardous materials do not get into nearby wetlands, similar to actions that are taken when there is a tractor-trailer or other gas spill from an accident on city roadways.