The foxnews.com article is simply one-sided. Too bad they could not be bothered to illustrate the article with a photo of PV on roofs and not an array field. Last I heard was that the NJ fire did not start with the PV, and was basically a cooking oil fire that even with roof access most likely could not be extinguished. The NJ roof array was not installed according to the fire access code shown below (one can measure the array on the Google Earth image before the fire).
These issues have been addressed for years and various 'hazards' are now addressed by the NEC (Art 690.4(F), for instance), International Fire
Code (2012 edition, Section 605.11), etc.
The International Fire Code is copyrighted, a direct link is not known, but many cities have adopted section 605.11 dealing with fire personnel access on roofs, maximum areas, etc. The City of Phoenix has most of this posted at:
http://phoenix.gov/webcms/groups/internet/@inter/@dept/@fire/@prev/documents/web_content/092509.pdf
The Solar America Board for Codes and Standards (Solar ABCs)(
http://solarabcs.org/index.html) has major efforts in these areas and followers of this forum should keep an eye on these.
There is much work underway to define these hazards and determine the best solutions. One interesting major report is:
http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/...buildingmaterials/fire/fireservice/pvsystems/