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H7135APublic Health

Health and Safety - Office of State Fire Marshal

The DMV must share the location and description of electric and hybrid vehicles with local fire departments twice a year.

Introduced33 Yea4 Nay1 Not voting
Population
Affected
15
Email Legislator
Introduced Jan 15, 2026Committee House State Government & Elections

Plain-English Summary

This bill mandates the creation of a specific database for electric and hybrid vehicles that use high-voltage lithium-ion batteries. The Office of the State Fire Marshal will work with the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to compile this information. Twice a year, the DMV must share specific details—including the vehicle's make, model, year, and the address where it is kept—with the local fire department or district responsible for that location. This ensures firefighters are aware of the presence of these vehicles for safety purposes.

For younger readers

This law is designed to help firefighters stay safe. Electric cars use very large batteries that can be dangerous and hard to put out if they catch on fire. This bill tells the state office that handles car registrations to make a special list of all the electric and hybrid cars. They have to share this list with the local fire stations. This way, if there is a fire at a house, the firefighters will know ahead of time if there is an electric car parked there.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Electric vehicle ownersHybrid vehicle ownersFire departmentsDivision of Motor VehiclesState Fire Marshal
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

There is a low but existsnt risk regarding the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy. While the state regulates vehicle registration, systematically compiling and distributing lists of specific property types located at private homes to local authorities could be viewed as an overreach of data usage. However, courts generally allow information sharing between government agencies for legitimate public safety interests.

Estimated cost
Amount unknown
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Enhances community safety and protects first responders by providing them with critical information needed to handle dangerous lithium-ion battery fires effectively.
  • Promotes the welfare of residents in multi-unit housing and dense neighborhoods by ensuring fire departments can proactively plan for high-risk incidents, potentially preventing catastrophic damage.
  • Modernizes public safety infrastructure to align with the adoption of green technology, ensuring that the transition to environmentally friendly vehicles is accompanied by responsible safety measures.
  • Creates a government surveillance mechanism that tracks individuals based on their consumer choices, raising privacy concerns about the state monitoring specific assets within private homes.
  • Establishes a precedent for sharing private DMV data with local entities without a warrant or immediate emergency, which could lead to broader data-sharing overreach that disproportionately affects certain groups.
  • Could potentially discourage the adoption of electric vehicles if consumers fear that owning one will result in their personal information and location being placed on a government monitoring list.
For Conservatives
  • Supports law and order by equipping first responders with the necessary intelligence to protect property and lives during complex emergencies involving volatile technologies.
  • Recognizes the unique risks imposed by new technologies and takes a prudent step to manage those risks to prevent catastrophic loss of private property.
  • Ensures that local fire districts have access to relevant data to maintain public safety without requiring the creation of a new tax or expensive bureaucracy.
  • Creates a government registry of private property owners, infringing on personal privacy and setting a dangerous precedent for state surveillance of law-abiding citizens.
  • Mandates unnecessary government bureaucracy by forcing coordination between state agencies and local districts, likely wasting taxpayer resources on administrative tasks.
  • Violates the expectation of privacy by distributing a vehicle owner's home address to local government entities without the owner's consent or a specific warrant.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

2 versions
Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 16 additions

SECTION 1. Chapter 23-28.2 of the General Laws entitled "Office of State Fire Marshal" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 23-28.2-31. Electric and hybrid motor vehicle identification database.

(a) The office of the state fire marshal ("office") shall, in coordination with the division of motor vehicles ("division"), create and maintain a vehicle identification database for electric or hybrid motor vehicles powered in whole or in part by a high-voltage lithium-ion storage battery.

(b) The office shall compile a contact list of all departments and districts that provide fire- fighting services and shall provide the division with the list which would enable the division to transfer the information required to be collected pursuant to subsection (c) of this section directly to the fire department or fire district that provides fire protection services to the address of the vehicle owner. The office shall provide an updated contact list to the division as necessary.

(c) The information to be transferred by the division pursuant to this section shall be limited to:

(1) A vehicle description including the make, model and year of the vehicle; and

(2) The address of the structure where the vehicle is located.

(d) The division shall forward the information collected pursuant to subsection (c) of this section to the municipal or volunteer fire department or fire district that provides fire protection services where the vehicle is located by January 1, and July 1, of each year.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect six (6) months after passage.