At 8.30am, Fire Rescue Victoria responded to an incident on the corner of Princes Highway and Westall Road, Springvale after multiple callers to Triple Zero (000) reported black smoke issuing from the roof of the IKEA building.
The incident was escalated to a second alarm due to the number of calls received and the sighting of flames and smoke from the rooftop.
Firefighters arrived within seven minutes to find solar panels on the roof involved in fire which had also penetrated through to the ceiling space below.
It is unclear at this stage whether the fire started from the panels or from the ceiling space beneath.
Firefighters quickly contained the blaze from above, with the incident deemed Under Control at 9:07am.
Crews remained on scene for some time to monitor the scene and assess building damage.
A photovoltaic system on the roof of a warehouse caught fire in the northern German town of Norden, triggering a large-scale operation by the volunteer fire department that lasted for hours and involved the use of two water cannons on Monday. On the same day, in Erftstadt, near Cologne, a garage in the area of a PV system caught fire, according to the local fire department.
On Monday afternoon, the Norden fire department in East Frisia received an emergency call. According to the report, the roof of a warehouse in the town was on fire, and several of its PV system’s solar modules were also burning in the middle section of the approximately 100-meter-long hall. “Although the fire was manageable in size, the extinguishing work was complex and time-consuming,” explained the Norden volunteer fire department on its website.
The energy supplier EWE disconnected the PV system from the grid, but the modules continued to produce electricity and kept reigniting the fire. “In addition, there were short circuits in the system, which caused further sources of fire and also posed a risk to the emergency services,” the report continued. In addition, when the emergency services investigated the hall, they found that the fire had also spread to the wooden roof structure.
The spread of the fire under the glass solar modules could be easily observed using a drone with a thermal imaging camera. The fire brigade then used two water cannons, among other things, to stop the fire from spreading further. The extinguishing measures were also carried out in a targeted manner with the help of the drone and two turntable ladders.
The fire brigade then also got support from a local electrician. He recommended uninstalling the damaged parts of the PV system to prevent another fire. Together with two firefighters, they began to dismantle the solar modules on the roof. The solar modules were then transported to the ground using a crane and pallet gripper from a building materials dealer, the fire brigade stated in its report. The operation on site lasted around seven hours. Around 100 emergency service personnel were on site. Experts and police are now trying to determine the cause of the fire and quantify the damage caused.
Fire in Erftstadt
There was also a fire in Erftstadt Scheuren near Cologne on Monday. Much less information is available on this so far.
“The garage burned down completely in the area of a photovoltaic system,” said the Erftstadt fire department on its Facebook page. Around 50 emergency services were on site and were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the main building. No one was injured. A request from pv magazine for further details and whether there was a battery storage system on site initially remained unanswered.
Fire crews from Ryde and Sandown responded to a smoking solar panel on the roof of a bungalow in Bembridge this morning (Tuesday).
It was just before 10:40 that Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service mobilised 2 appliances and an Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) to Meadow End, off Meadow Drive.
It had been reported to fire control that smoke was issuing from a photovoltaic solar panel attached to a residential property.
Firefighters used ladders to gain access to a flat roof and then utilised a special extinguisher called PVSTOP – which is carried on the ALP – to bring the situation under control.
PVSTOP is a specialised fire safety product to neutralise solar panels. It works by blocking sunlight and therefore ‘switching off’ the solar panels, making them electrically safe.
Fire crews have since stood down from the incident.
Dozens of firefighters responded to a fire Tuesday morning at an Ikea distribution center in Joliet, Illinois.
Around 10:15 a.m., Joliet firefighters responded to the Ikea warehouse at 650 Emerald Drive for a report of heavy smoke coming from the roof.
When crews arrived, approximately one-third of the roof was on fire. A total of 81 firefighters responded to the fire, and it took them about two hours to put the fire out.
The fire caused significant damage to the roof, including dozens of solar panels which appeared to be destroyed.
One firefighter received treatment at the hospital for exhaustion.
All employees managed to get out of the building without any injuries.
On the occasion of marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, Cemex Croatia organized a series of activities aimed at strengthening the safety of employees and the local community.
The central event was a firefighting exercise simulating a solar system fire at the Administrative Building of the Sv. Juraj factory, during which the evacuation of employees was successfully carried out. Cemex employees, Securitas security guards and members of the Mladost Fire Brigade from Kaštel Sućurac participated in the exercise, and it included testing the readiness and cooperation of all participants in conditions of real danger. After the exercise, a training for firefighters of the Mladost Fire Department was organized with a focus on the specifics of extinguishing fires with solar panels, which is an increasingly significant challenge in modern industrial plants.
In order to further help improve security capacities, Cemex purchased PVSTOP fire extinguishers for its own needs and for the needs of DVD Mladost, the only known solution for quick and efficient ‘shutdown’ of solar panels in the event of fire, flood or other emergency incidents. PVSTOP acts as a liquid coating that blocks the flow of light and stops electricity generation, allowing firefighters safer access and more effective intervention.
“The safety of our employees, partners and community is always our priority. By marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, we want to further emphasize the importance of education, preparedness and mutual cooperation in crisis situations,” said Fabjan Ruščić, Head of Occupational Safety and Health at Cemex Croatia.
West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service said Joint Fire Control mobilised four fire engines and an aerial ladder platform to the scene on Tuesday afternoon (March 18).
“We were called at 1.33pm to reports of a fire involving solar panels on a home in Dunnock Square, Yapton,” a fire service spokesperson said.
“Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus carried out an inspection of the building’s smoke-logged roof space using a thermal imaging camera, before using a specialist extinguisher PVSTOP on the solar panels.”
