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Comment by danans | Hacker News Reader

Based on what I see in the photo in the article, PV array codes in Puerto Rico must be quite different from those in California, because the arrays seem to cover almost the entirety of the roofs. In California fire access codes [1] prevent the entire roof from being covered like in PV that.

1. https://energycodeace.com/site/custom/public/reference-ace-2...

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Likely because they have building codes that prevent the construction of houses from matchsticks.

It has nothing to do with construction and everything to do with rainfall.

I can throw a lit road flare into my back yard and nothing will happen, because I don't live in a glorified desert. PR is an order of magnitude wetter than where I live.

PR has a dry season when the island receives less rain, and there are dry regions that generally get less rain. In fact, there are sometimes forest fires [1].

Regarding construction, I've never seen a smoke alarm inside a residential building in PR. I would hazard a guess that this is allowed for concrete/cinderblock; presumably the roof thing is the same.

[1] - https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/seguridad/notas/incendio...

The vast majority of roofs in Puerto Rico are flat and the vast majority of buildings are made of cinder blocks and concrete.

What's the rationale for that? It's not a rule in the UK. I'm not sure who's going to be walking on the roof of a building that's on fire.

looking at the linked doc, its so that the roof can easily be opened to let smoke out.

I'm not an expert, but I've not seen in the UK (well apart from thatched roofs) firefighters opening the roof to get access.

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