Rooftop solar fire forces evacuation of five-storey Sacramento building
June 2024Published 16 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-2408 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 Friday 28 June 2024, at around 1pm local time, Sacramento Fire Department crews were called to a five-storey building on the 2400 block of Venture Oaks Way, Sacramento, California. Firefighters found solar panels on the roof on fire, and crews evacuated the building. A smoke plume was visible from Interstate 5. No injuries were reported. The article does not report the cause of the fire, the type or age of the solar installation, whether the building is residential or commercial, how long the fire burned, or how many occupants were evacuated.
Contributing factors
Not reported. The source does not state the cause of the fire or any contributing condition.
Lessons learned
- Rooftop PV arrays should have clearly labelled DC isolators and up-to-date shutdown information available to fire crews, so that the array can be de-energised quickly during a fire.
- Building evacuation decisions for rooftop PV fires should account for the time needed to isolate the array and for the smoke plume that can be seen from a distance.
- Owners and operators of multi-storey buildings should include rooftop solar in fire risk assessments and in routine inspection of connectors, cabling and roof penetrations.
More lessons on fire suppression and firefighting, spacing, layout and fire spread, maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, from every incident on the register.
Source
Other entries that name Sacramento
Published 2026-10-16. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
