NY Chief Wants Solar Companies to Pay for Detection Equipment
When Chaumont, NY firefighters responded to a recent fire involving storage batteries at a solar farm, they didn't have the proper equipment.
Chaumont Fire Chief Will Lipczynski wants the company that installed the panels to pay for detection meters, WWNY reported.
“After dealing with that, we realize now we have to have some specialty equipment on our trucks that we wouldn’t normally have to carry,” he said adding that the detectors will cost thousands of dollars.
State Senator Mark Walczyk (R-49) agrees. “Gases that come off these containers are tasteless, odorless, have no color, so you have to have that sensing equipment on the ground just for human safety."
Walczyk's suggestion that local governments should think about requiring solar companies that are coming in to give fire departments equipment they may need was supported by both Chaumont Mayor James Murrow and Jefferson County Legislator Bill Johnson.
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