Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023;59(1):247-270.
doi: 10.1007/s10694-022-01269-4. Epub 2022 May 23.

A Review on Safety Practices for Firefighters During Photovoltaic (PV) Fire

Mohd Rashid Ramali  1 , Nur Aliah Fatin Mohd Nizam Ong  1 , Mohamad Syazarudin Md Said  1 , Hamdan Mohamed Yusoff  1 , Mohd Rafee Baharudin  2 , Ahmad Faiz Tharima  3 , Farid Wajdi Akashah  4 , Mohd Zahirasri Mohd Tohir  1
Affiliations

A Review on Safety Practices for Firefighters During Photovoltaic (PV) Fire

Mohd Rashid Ramali et al. Fire Technol. 2023.

Abstract

In recent years, it is evident that there is a surge in photovoltaic (PV) systems installations on buildings. It is concerning that PV system related fire incidents have been reported throughout the years. Like any other electrical power system, PV systems pose fire and electrical hazards when at fault. As a consequence, PV fires compromised the safety of emergency responders. Therefore, the objective of this review is to evaluate the elements of firefighters' safety practices and subsequently collate the best safety practices for local fire rescue and firefighters in the event of PV fires. Out of 264 documents, only 20 publications were identified as 'closely related' and were systematically reviewed to evaluate firefighter safety practices from a scholarly perspective. Only 3% of the 20 publications reviewed, discussed the safety practices during PV fires. Thirteen safety practice key points were extracted from the reviewed documents, with nine critical findings highlighted as the hallmark of safety practices during PV fire for firefighters. The lack of academic journals discussing the fire safety aspects proves that there is a low interest in this field which is in dire need of further study and exploration to adhere with the PV population in ensuring a reliable emergency operation to minimize losses or injuries due to accidents.

Keywords: Electrical fire; Fire suppression; Firefighter safety; Firefighters; PV fire; Safety practices.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Stages of systematic literature review in this study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Review stages performed and summary of tasks
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of documents by publication period
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of documents by literature type in each query
Figure 5
Figure 5
Categories resulted from the identified emerging themes
Figure 6
Figure 6
Research interest only corresponds to 11% related to safety practices for firefighters during PV fire
Figure 7
Figure 7
Different stages of setting to depict a clear picture of "during fire" as research scope
Figure 8
Figure 8
The three sub-topics resulted from the "closely related" category
Figure 9
Figure 9
Setback rule of PV module installation. Source: Figure recreated from [53]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Solar Power Europe (2021) Solar continues to break installation records, on track for Terawatt scale by 2022. https://www.solarpowereurope.org/solar-continues-to-break-installation-r.... Accessed 15 Jan 2022
    1. Smith T (2021) Global solar PV market is breaking all sorts of records. https://www.esi-africa.com/industry-sectors/generation/global-solar-pv-m.... Accessed 15 Jan 2022
    1. Kumar NM, Subathra MSP, Moses JE (2018) On-grid solar photovoltaic system: components, design considerations, and case study. Paper presented at the 2018 4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES)
    1. Dhere N, Shiradkar N. Fire hazard and other safety concerns of photovoltaic systems. J Photonics Energy. 2012;2(1):022006. doi: 10.1117/1.JPE.2.022006. - DOI
    1. Laukamp H, Bopp G, Grab R, Wittwer C, Häberlin H, Heeckeren BV, Phillip S, Reil F, Schmidt H, Sepanski A, Thiem H, Vaassen W (2013) PV fire hazard—analysis and assessment of fire incidents. Paper presented at the 28th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Paris

LinkOut - more resources