CBS News: Solar Safety
Over the past few years, firefighters have been encountering more and more solar panels as more homes are outfitted with these energy saving devices. According to Butte County CAL FIRE Captain Scott McLean, “We have solar panels that sometimes become a hazard, and what I mean by that is the electricity flows from those solar panels down into the house at the electrical panel. There is no switch in between, so there is a lot of voltage flowing at any time that we can not turn off.”
“We have found … we can bring a tarp up on the roof and cover those solar panels, which take that aspect away from them,” McLean said.
Fire Protection Research Foundation
“Components are always hot!” and “Operate normally, but don’t touch” is the advice provided to fire departments from the NFPA when dealing with a fire involving solar panels, due to current building codes and the lack of adequate technology available to fire departments.
The report is entitled, “Fire Fighter Safety and Emergency Response for Solar Power Systems”.
San Francisco Examiner: Solar Changes Rules
In a recent article, the San Francisco Examiner stated that as “part of sweeping changes to The City’s fire code, Fire Marshal Barbara Schultheis wants to adopt statewide standards for solar panel installation in order to keep firefighters safe. Those guidelines are much stricter than current regulations and could make solar installation in San Francisco more difficult.”
The new regulations include installing a bright red sign to alert firefighters that solar panels are present on the roof. No solutions to disarming the energy flow in the panels was considered.
Australian Broadcasting: Solar Panels Spark Fire Concerns
“Up to 2,000 Australian homes could be at risk of electrical fires from poorly installed roof-top solar panels,” according to an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Geoff Stapleton of the Clean Energy Council and Ted Spooner of the accreditation department for Renewable Energy Systems, talk about the hazards to fire fighters involved with solar panel fires.