KIRKLAND – Northern Illinois firefighters have been invited to a training session next week that will explore the unique ins and outs of fighting fires where solar panels are present.

“Obviously solar is getting bigger and bigger, especially in DeKalb County, and these guys haven’t been trained on it yet,” said Joseph McClintock, a solar energy consultant for myenergyconsultant.com.

The event will be hosted Thursday by the Kirkland Community Fire Chief Chad Connell and held at the Kirkland Community Fire District building at 6 p.m., with a dinner consisting of pork chop sandwiches starting at 5 p.m.

A 9/11 responder, Joseph Vallo, the Battalion Chief for Jersey City, New Jersey’s Fire Department, will facilitate the training session. McClintock, however, organized the event.

The inspiration to organize this clinic came after a Kirkland firefighter started asking questions while his mother was signing up to have solar panels installed on her property through McClintock.

The training is going to be a lecture based session, which will go over the nuances of fighting a fire around the electricity a solar panel generates.

“It’s going over the equipment, how do you fight the fire, what are you up against when you get there,” McClintock said.

Among the things for firefighters to be aware of when responding to a fire near solar panels is how to disconnect the solar from the rest of the power grid.

“If you don’t,” McClintock said, “there’s electricity going from the panels to the meter.”

“Ninety-nine percent of solar systems in Illinois don’t have batteries,” McClintock said. Instead of storing the electricity in batteries at home, which would be another cause for concern if a fire broke out, the energy generated is immediately pushed onto the power grid. In this area of Illinois that grid is managed by ComEd. McClintock said that means properties with solar panels essentially become a substation for the power grid

McClintock also said this can be a contentious subject, but emphasized that solar panels don’t create a greater risk for fires.