Shoppers on an evening run to Ikea’s Oak Creek store got an abrupt change of plans Wednesday when the building was evacuated after smoke was spotted on the roof. A solar panel had caught fire, officials said, but store employees managed to put the flames out before firefighters reached the scene. The store reopened later that night, and no injuries were reported. The cause is still under investigation.
What officials said
Crews from the Oak Creek Fire Department were called to the store at 7500 S. IKEA Way after reports of smoke coming from the rooftop, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The outlet reported that fire was limited to a single solar panel and that the building was cleared out as a precaution while firefighters checked the rest of the rooftop system.
Staff put out the small blaze
Oak Creek Fire Department spokesman Scott Kasten said firefighters "had to manage the situation and wait for some maintenance personnel to de-energize the system," since solar equipment must be shut down before responders can safely move in. By the time crews arrived, he said, store workers had already knocked down the small fire. Firefighters then stayed on scene to monitor the installation and confirm there was no remaining hazard.
Rooftop solar and the Ikea site
The Oak Creek Ikea is a roughly 290,000-square-foot store that opened after the company broke ground there in 2017, according to the company’s corporate reporting. Large retail rooftops are common spots for solar arrays, which can cut power costs but also add a layer of complexity for fire crews, since panels and inverters need to be safely de-energized before responders can work around them.
Reopening and next steps
Officials said the store reopened to customers later that night and confirmed that no one was hurt, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Oak Creek authorities said the source of the solar-panel fire remains under investigation and that they plan to work with store maintenance and company representatives as they look into what went wrong.
