Fire in vacant Mechelen building, headline attributes it to a solar panel defect (provisional)

What happened

Belgian news outlet HLN reported a fire in a vacant building on Zandpoortvest in Mechelen, Belgium. The headline attributes the fire to a technical defect in the solar panels on the property. A witness quoted in the headline said they saw flare-ups. The full article could not be retrieved, so the date of the fire, the extent of damage, the fire service response, any injuries and the type and size of the solar installation are not recorded here. This description rests on the headline and feed summary alone and should be checked against the full report.

Contributing factors

The headline attributes the fire to a technical defect in the solar panels. No further contributing factors are reported in the material available.

Lessons learned

1. Buildings with solar installations that are vacant or rarely visited may benefit from periodic inspection, because faults can develop unnoticed when no one is on site.
2. Check DC cabling, connectors and junction boxes for damage, heat discolouration and loose terminations, and use thermal imaging where practical.
3. Fit smoke or heat detection in buildings with PV, and make sure the array and its isolators can be shut down quickly by the owner or the fire service.

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

Source

hln.be