Hoosier Solar Sponsors Training for Starke County Fire Departments

On January 12 and 13, Hoosier Solar sponsored three training sessions for Starke County fire departments at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center. The sessions focused on fire safety for photovoltaic (PV) equipment and were led by former Deputy Fire Marshal Tony Granato of Energy Response Solutions, LLC. The training covered essential knowledge to prepare local volunteer firefighters for effectively responding to incidents involving PV systems.

Tony Granato of Energy Response Solutions, LLC, leading the training session for Starke County fire departments.

“The systems are generally safe, as installed by the manufacturer's instructions, and the fire departments now have the information to be able to go in, operate safely and mitigate the hazards of what the system can present if the system is in a damaged state,” said Granato. “The community really doesn't have much of a worry with these systems. It's very rare that there's an incident within the system itself. The monitoring companies and the technicians that are generally on-site will monitor the system, and if there's any failures on any components, they jump on them right away.”

“We appreciate Hoosier Solar hosting this training for local firefighters,” Knox-Center Township Fire Chief Kenny Pfost said. “We will be one of the main departments to respond to a fire at Hoosier Solar’s Starke Central site and will also provide mutual aid to North Bend should that be necessary. We are much more confident in our response capabilities after taking part in this training.”

“We are grateful for the opportunity to provide essential education to help keep the Starke community safe,” said Hoosier Solar CEO, Steven Lichtin. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with local fire departments to uphold all safety standards for our projects.”