A simple fire in a room presumably caused a single-family home in Schwerinsdorf in Germany to burn down completely in February 2010. The fire spread through the roof structure and destroyed the entire building. Although the local fire brigades arrived on the scene immediately with six fire engines and 70 firemen, they were unable to save the building.
The reason: A photovoltaic system installed on the roof made it impossible to fight the fire immediately. The firemen did not use water to fight the fire until they were sure that the photovoltaic system did not pose any further danger. By then, however, the fire had destroyed most of the roof structure.
Why did the firemen wait so long and let the house burn down in a controlled manner instead of quickly tackling what was presumably only a small fire? Firemen have to be particularly careful when fighting fires in buildings with solar equipment, for the solar modules cannot simply be “switched off”. Photovoltaic systems, such as here, can produce DC voltages with up to 1,000 volts. Such high voltages can be lethal. Since water – including fire water – conducts electricity, the firemen were in acute danger of suffering electric shocks when fighting the fire.
