diff --git a/vllm/v1/engine/core_client.py b/vllm/v1/engine/core_client.py
index 55057179f3a4..d060d9778e75 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/engine/core_client.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/engine/core_client.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import os
 import queue
 import signal
+import threading
 import uuid
 import weakref
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
@@ -260,7 +261,14 @@ def sigusr1_handler(signum, frame):
                          "down. See stack trace above for root cause issue.")
             kill_process_tree(os.getpid())
 
-        signal.signal(signal.SIGUSR1, sigusr1_handler)
+        if threading.current_thread() == threading.main_thread():
+            signal.signal(signal.SIGUSR1, sigusr1_handler)
+        else:
+            logger.warning("SIGUSR1 handler not installed because we are not "
+                           "running in the main thread. In this case the "
+                           "forked engine process may not be killed when "
+                           "an exception is raised, and you need to handle "
+                           "the engine process shutdown manually.")
 
         # Serialization setup.
         self.encoder = MsgpackEncoder()