Vegetation fire contained at solar farm in Santa Margarita

What happened

Fire crews responded to a vegetation fire, named the Helios Fire, at California Solar Farm in Santa Margarita. It was first reported before 9 p.m. on Sunday. Fire officials first said it was holding at about 170 acres. San Luis Obispo County Fire later said forward progress had stopped overnight and that containment was 40 per cent, with a further increase expected once control lines could be seen in daylight. Cal Fire then revised the burned area to 38 acres, with 90 per cent containment by Monday afternoon. The cause was not reported. The source does not say whether solar equipment was damaged, or whether anyone was injured.

Contributing factors

The cause of the fire was not reported.

Lessons learned

1. Early acreage figures for a vegetation fire at a solar farm should be treated as provisional until crews can inspect control lines in daylight.
2. Overnight monitoring can stop forward progress even when full containment is not yet confirmed.
3. Where the cause is unknown, operators should not assume the fire began in electrical equipment, and should still inspect the site once it is safe.

More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.

Source

ksby.com