News / We The Curious

Solar panels catching fire appears to be cause of We The Curious blaze

By Martin Booth  Sunday Apr 10, 2022

We The Curious will be closed to visitors for the duration of the Easter holidays and maybe for longer after a serious fire on Saturday afternoon.

Exclusive footage shot by Bristol24/7 shows dozens of solar panels on the building’s roof were destroyed in the blaze.

We The Curious has Bristol’s largest photovoltaic solar panel array of around 200 panels, with more than 60 of these completely destroyed.

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In a statement on Sunday, We The Curious said that they have “sustained some significant fire and water damage to the roof, our second floor and areas of the building where water has come through. Thankfully, our main exhibition floors appears to remain relatively unharmed.

“We’ve still got some more assessing of the site to do, but we now know that we’ll be closed for a few weeks.”

We The Curious declared a climate emergency in 2019 by publicising their pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030 – photo: Martin Booth

Analysis by the BRE National Solar Centre suggests that there are three possible root causes for solar panel fires: an error in the system design, a faulty product or poor installation.

The most frequent cause of recent fires has been due to poor installation practices, leading to water getting into DC isolators.

There are more than one million solar panels installed across the UK, with solar panels contributing more than ten per cent of renewable generation and more than four per cent of total electricity generation in the UK in 2021.

In their statement, We The Curious added: “We’d like to say a massive thank you to our incredible staff for their hard work and dedication, to our visitors for their understanding, and to the Avon Fire and Rescue team and police for their swift action.

“We’d also like to say a big thanks to Bristol Hotel, SS Great Britain and Bristol Old Vic for supporting a wedding party that we had on Saturday.”

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We The Curious’ solar panels in happier times – photo: We The Curious

Main photo & video: Martin Booth

Read more: Fire breaks out at We The Curious

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