A union representing Dublin Fire Brigade members has said important information around risks is not being passed on to fire crews.
SIPTU is calling for specialist training and equipment to help them tackle lithium-ion battery fires.
These batteries are found in things like electric cars, electric bikes and electric scooters.
Fires involving electric vehicles can see blazes burn for longer and with greater ferocity.
SIPTU organiser Geoff McEvoy told The Hard Shoulder the issue speaks to a much bigger problem.
"If you take the example of electric vehicles and the batteries, they present a particular challenge if they do catch fire," he said.
"They're not any more or less likely to catch fire than, say, a petrol vehicle but there is a particular challenge if they do.
"That needs to be understood, it needs to be risk-assessed, and then the appropriate measures put in place be it resourcing or training".
'Important information'
Mr McEvoy warned that important information is not being passed on to fire crews.
"If you have for example a fire in a multi-storey car park, and there are electric vehicles charging points in that car park, that knowledge that there would be electric vehicles in that particular location wouldn't be accessible to a crew responding to an incident," he said.
"That's an example of the type of failure that we're seeing where important information about risks within Dublin are not made available to operational fire fighting crews".
Mr McEvoy said such information would be passed to fire crews in other jurisdictions.
"Even when that assessment might be known to other authorities within Ireland, it's not always shared and not always communicated," he said.
"The Government published a report last year that said that between 50% and 80% of Celtic Tiger properties have fire safety defects.
"Dublin Fire Brigade do not know what those defects are or where they are," he added.
Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire when damaged, short-circuited or overheated.
