Solar Panel Roof Fire ??

[LCREP]

The fire is still going since Sunday afternoon, I am sure more will be known in a few days about the cause. The fire started on the roof and involved the roof insulation and then worked its way into the 300,000 sq. ft. food storage warehouse, up to 11 alarms, they ran out of water and now have a water shuttle going, thank god no serious injuries. Seems like I have been hearing about these types of solar roof fires more frequently, how about you? The roof has 7,000 solar power modules on the roof, or should I say it had 7000 units!

Yet another hazard for our brothers to be worried about...be safe.


11-Alarm Fire Guts Dietz & Watson Warehouse

Link

 

[DRWeig]

Here's a UL doc that we should keep in mind from a previous post:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=315684

And the original source:

http://ul-energy.com/february2012/#c779

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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[LCREP]

Dave

Good stuff thanks for sharing, my guess as a result of this large loss many folks will be looking how to prevent this from occurring again. Lets hope they figure out what went wrong and share it with the fire protection community.

 

[DRWeig]

Sure thing, LCREP.

There's a lot more if you stick this phrase into Google:

what starts photovoltaic system fires

Lots of discussion, plus a new NEC and UL rule calling for arc fault circuit protectors. The majority of the fires I read about were started with a DC arcing fault, then accelerated by the firelight phenomenon I referred to above.

It's a hot topic (pun intended, even though it's a serious matter).

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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[stookeyfpe]

LCREP:

A well done primer on this subject that I have referenced in my written works was prepared by NFPRF:

http://www.nfpa.org/research/fire-p...r-safety-and-response-for-solar-power-systems

 

[LCREP]

Thanks Stookey I am sure this fire will be discussed at work, this will give us something to consider. Not sure if increased inspection on the panels and electrical systems can help prevent these fires from occurring or at least reduce the loss potential. If you know of any other large total loss fires please let me know. Do we have a common root cause for the failures? If the FD is not going to fight the fire which I do not blame them no building is worth a loss of life, how can we reduce our loss potential??

 

[stookeyfpe]

LCREP:

Under the NEC and 2009 IFC, disconnects are required. The problem with PV arrays is they cannot be de-energized when they are receiving light (that's my understanding of the literature). I was thinking about this incident this AM and realized that dependent on the building code in effect at the time of construction, the roof covering most likely had to be Class C. If a catastrophic failure of a PV array occurred, I suspect that some fairly large pieces of hot metal could land on the roof and cause ignition. Remember that the fire tests for all roof coverings is essentially a burning brand test. The current fire tests don't consider the scenario of a catastrophic electrical component failure which may sustain burning for an extended duration.

 

[LCREP]

Scott,

Very good point, if the fire starts below the roof as in the building we have the fire sprinklers to give us a chance to control or extinguish the fire. A fire starting by energized conduit and or any other arching equipment on Top of the room is a different story. How long will the codes take to catch up to this loss potential in particular when they add the solar AFTER the roof as been installed, like a few years. Given NJ has a ton of these roof mounted systems I have a feeling we will be seeing more of this. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association New Jersey has the second highest solar capacity in the United States! Go figure a state so small has the 2nd highest solar capacity!

I wonder given the total loss of the site will we ever know IF it was solar related??