Firefighter's fears

[GoldDigger]

The main reason firefighters cut holes in the roof is for venting.

Holes in a flat roof without suspended ceiling will vent very well.
Venting a closed residential attic with no fire involvement in the ceiling yet will have minimal venting effect, but may be done as a precaution anyway to investigate the status of the attic space.

Basically, there may need to be differences in solar PV installation standards for commercial versus residential situations, although some features will be common to both. I just hope that the regulators do not try a one-size-fits-all approach.

 

[Sierrasparky]

As someone else stated If the code is lax then the local agencies need to step in.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

I understand but it just becomes a question of where to draw the line on what an owner is required to do in order to make firefighting easier. There are no end to things that could be done to make firefighting easier. ...

It is not a case of making it easier...if the fire conditions require venting and you can't put the vent holes in the right locations or make them big enough, you increase the chances that the building will be a total loss. Maybe it just needs to be addressed by the insurance industry. If you put solar panels on the roof, the cost of the fire insurance would go up to reflect the increasing chance of a total loss.

That being said, with the current design of commercial and light industrial buildings, if there is much fire inside the building at the time the fire department arrives, it will be an outside defensive fight only and no one will be placed on the roof. The only entry that would be made to the building would be search and rescue.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

The main reason firefighters cut holes in the roof is for venting. Explosive gasses can build up in a fire and case a flashover. Venting lets those gasses out, along with smoke, the removal of smoke making it easier for the firefighters in the building to be able to see.

Explosive gasses have nothing to do with flashover. Flashover is when the heat of the fire raises the temperature of all of the stuff in the room to the auto-ignition temperature and it all "flashes" into flame at the same time. "Backdraft" is the smoke "explosion". Venting reduces the chances both flashovers and backdrafts.
Correctly placed vents will also help limit the horizontal spread of the fire within the building.