Robards Fire Department responded to a fire in one of the inverters connected to a field of solar panels off Ky. 1299 near Hunter Lane two times Tuesday.
Robards Fire Department Chief David Denton said representatives of the company installing the solar field were commissioning the inverter when something malfunctioned and it caught fire.
“This is their testing phase, and this one failed,” Denton said.
He said the inverter is about 6 feet tall by 8 feet wide by 25 feet long, about half the size of a semi shipping container.
At about 7:45 p.m. when the Hendersonian spoke to him, Denton said it was the second time the department had been to the scene. The first, in the afternoon, firefighters came to the inverter and doused the grass around it, he said.
At the time of the interview, he said the fire was contained within the inverter and that only the glow of fire could be seen within the inverter box.
He said during the phone interview that firefighters were back for the second time and were currently watching the fire. He said one of his firefighters has a fire extinguisher that contains a special agent for electrical fires and they were planning to use that.
He said representatives of energy company Next Era were on the scene and watching the fire and were planning to stay and watch it through the night.
He said three or four residents live within a half mile of the fire. He didn’t believe there were any health concerns with the smoke.
Henderson County Magistrate Taylor Tompkins said he lives about a mile from the fire. He also said that the fire’s smoke doesn’t pose any health concerns for residents, adding that a fire from an average home—which has more electronics in it than what an inverter does—is a greater problem.
A fire is never something anyone wants, he said, but this incident proves that Next Era representatives are doing what they said they would when a fire occurs. He said they will stay on scene for the next 24 hours.
He said it’s an electrical fire and there may be flare-ups throughout the night.
