Hi John,
Personally, I have to agree with the Fire Chief in this situation, I think he made the right call there.
Not in any way because of any perceived electrical hazard, but one of the golden rules of firefighting is to never get yourself or others into a position that can't be escaped from.
Also, with the amount of weight already on the roof (with the PV panels) and the likelihood of collapse caused by heat from the fire below compromising the roof structure, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't put my fellow FF's in that situation either, it's a dangerous enough occupation as it is, without making it worse with bad decisions.
Having been involved with fire investigation in the past, I can say that any verdict as to the cause can take ages, some fires are easy to work out what started them, others can take a LOT of pain-staking work (I've had a pair of tweezers in my hands on the odd job), but that is what you have to do, instead of putting it in the "too hard" basket".
This is why it REALLY annoys me when I read somewhere that some "fire investigator" deems a fire to be started by electricity alone, "Ohhh, it's electrical!" they say, bollocks, 9 times out of 10, this couldn't be further from the truth, electricity itself, can't start a fire, there has to be something like negligence, criminal intent or plain stupidity to cause that electricity to start that fire.
