Fire burns down three houses in Ubon Ratchathani
By The Nation

 

UBON RATCHATHANI: -- A dog was killed and three houses were burned down in a blaze believed to have been caused by a solar cell system short circuit in the Muang district of Ubon Ratchathani province early Wednesday, police said.

 

Pol Lt-Colonel Pramote Chuentarong, deputy inspector of Muang Ubon Ratchathani Police Station, said police got the fire alert at 2.10am.

 

About 15 fire engines took more than two hours to put out the blaze.

 

Pramote said the fire started at the house of Ubolsakaya Khanaiwong, 54, an electrician, before it quickly spread to the houses of Montha Kaewsai, 54, and Suwit Wichienperit, 55.

 

Ubolsakaya told police that he and his wife were at a fresh market when the fire broke out. He said his pet dog was killed in the fire.

 

Ubolsakaya said he suspected that there might have been a short circuit in his solar cell system that used three batteries to store electricity.

 

An eyewitness, Nanthakorn Ladpho, 18, told police that he heard an explosion and so he came out and found the fire starting at Ubolsakaya’s house, which also served as an electrical appliances repair shop. He said he saw the blaze engulf the house in just 20 minutes and spread to two other houses.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30314086

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-03

Ironic that an electrician lost his home to an electrical fault.

 

Sad that two other families lost theirs through no fault of their own

 

Note for anyone DIYing solar. There is a LOT of energy stored in a lead-acid battery and it all coming out at once is to be avoided. Please include fuses in your battery leads.

Fire started at an electricians house.

 Says a lot about Thai sparkies, a lot of folk will be nervous now, if he was the man who wired their houses.

Must have been old wooden houses. A rock would be easier to start on fire than my house. 

now this is a new one   a solar  cell   is unlikely  to start  a fire   theoretically  correctly connected through a charge controller   the  inbuilt fuse  would disconnect   the circuit      not saying it would not fry the circuit board/ wiring though

 

 

but as mentioned before  the total charge held in one/multiple  batteries   also depends connected in series   or parallel  either way unfused   can cause   tremendous bomb like damage and fire