Apparent solar panel fire on home roof in Thiells, New York
May 2023Published 9 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
Get the next one by email
Free alerts on solar PV incidents in the United States, and an email when EIR-2172 is updated. No account needed; unsubscribe in one click.
Get a free sample brief Three complete verified records and the incidents-per-GW table, by email within a minute.
By signing up you agree to the privacy policy.
What happened
On Thursday 25 May 2023, at around 11 a.m., firefighters responded to an apparent solar panel fire on the roof of a home in the Thiells/Garnerville area of Rockland County, New York. Officials were on the roof of the house responding to the fire. The first Thiells fire chief to arrive saw a fire on the roof that appeared to be coming from the solar panels. No one was home at the time, and the fire stayed outside the building.
Firefighters said they put the fire out within minutes. The report does not give the cause of the fire, the age or make of the installation, or the extent of any damage to the building.
Contributing factors
The source does not report a cause. It states only that the fire appeared to come from the solar panels and was described as apparent.
Lessons learned
- Rooftop solar fires can start at the array, so fire crews need quick access to information on how to isolate a home's PV system.
- Installers and owners should arrange periodic inspection of roof-mounted arrays, connectors and cabling, since a fault there may not be visible from the ground.
- Where a fire starts while a building is unoccupied, prompt detection and reporting by neighbours or alarms limit its spread and the damage to the structure.
More lessons on fire suppression and firefighting, maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-10-09. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
