On 30^th April, Nik Rus represented FRISSBE as a guest speaker at an online webinar organised by the SFPE IMFSE Student Chapter, entitled "A Peek into PV-Related Fires". The session attracted around 35 attendees and was followed by a lively debate with questions from the audience, a testament to the growing interest in this rapidly evolving area of fire safety research.

Nik's presentation addressed several interconnected aspects of fire safety in photovoltaic systems. He opened by contextualising the challenge: whilst PV installations are growing rapidly worldwide, reliable fire risk data continues to lag significantly behind, with current statistics often non-homogeneous and reliant on manual collection methods. This data gap, he argued, presents a fundamental challenge for both researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and manage PV fire risk.

The talk then explored the typical fire development process in PV systems, from ignition through to spread, examining the role of individual system components and the influence of installation quality. Particular attention was given to experimental findings demonstrating how seemingly minor installation details, including geometry, the presence of obstacles, and the choice of roofing materials, can have a substantial effect on how fire spreads across a PV array.

A key takeaway from the session was the inherently multidisciplinary nature of PV fire safety, which sits at the intersection of electrical systems, material science, and fire dynamics. As PV installations become an ever more common feature of the built environment, this complexity makes the field increasingly relevant for both fire safety research and engineering practice.

FRISSBE thanks the SFPE IMFSE Student Chapter for the invitation and all those who joined the session and contributed to the discussion.