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Is the cause of Ikea fire Wembley known?

Sergio Fernandez

Is the cause of Ikea fire Wembley known.


www.bbc.co.uk/.../cglg493d273o


Does anyone know the cause of the fire?  

Was there an issue with the Solar PV panels themselves?

Did they use Micro inverters on a 1:1 basis per Salar PV panel?

Was it a mis-match of MC4 connector brands?

Should an install of that size have a Rapid Shut down mechanism?

What cable was used between the PV panels?

How many strings were used for the 100 panels?

Moving forward do need a review of commercial rooftop solar installation safety with input from the following?
IET -  The Institution of Engineering and Technology 
BSI  -  British Standards Institution
LFB -  London Fire Brigade
BRE. -  Building Research Establishment




As always please be polite and respectful in this purely academic debate.





Come on everybody let’s help inspire the future

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  • It does feel odd to have 100 panels catch fire at the same time - it seems unlikely they're on the same string so hard to see how a single simple electrical fault could have triggered it. How does a PV panel burn anyway? I thought they were mostly glass and aluminium - hardly the easiest things to ignite - and usually well spaced, so hard to see how a fire would naturally spread from one to another.

    So far I can only imagine either some catastrophic invert fault that back fed mains to the panels (presuming it was one huge inverter for the lot, which feels unlikely), or perhaps arson?

        - Andy.

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    Anything is possible.  My thinking was maybe a Solar PV panel strike or some kind of power fluctuation that was enough to melt some cables which could then ark.  Maybe the PV system is just the ignition source and the fuel was provided by something else like the paint/coating of the roof.  Thus completing the fire triangle of

    Spark/Flame + Fuel + Oxygen

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez

    You may not have seen what LFB have to say.

    https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2025/october/fire-at-store-wembley/

    The last line is germane

    "The fire is believed to have been caused by resistive heating"

    Now I'm not sure resistive heating of what but on a roof some kind of frost heater or de-icer perhaps ?

    Mike.

  • in reply to mapj1
    mapj1 said:
    Now I'm not sure resistive heating of what but on a roof some kind of frost heater or de-icer perhaps ?

    Or PV cables, connectors ... or panels themselves (forward or reverse current)?

    Simply a very broad statement at this stage ....

  • in reply to mapj1

    "The fire is believed to have been caused by resistive heating"

    Or maybe, given usual description of the cause of the rash of CU fires, that's just become the FB's new stock phrase (as "electrical fault" used to be in years gone by when they couldn't attribute the cause to anything else).

    Mid-morning on a gloomy October day isn't likely to see unusually high PV generated currents 

       - Andy.

  • in reply to mapj1

    Was it a mis-match of MC4 connector brands?  What cable was used between the Solar PV panels?

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