Fire Fighting from the Air - Retardant
Kurt Kamm
July 03, 2008
Phos-Check is a brand name fire retardant that has been around for decades. Other products are sold under different names, but they are all essentially variations of agricultural fertilizer in a powder form. The powder is mixed in a 1 to 5 ratio with water and is pumped into the holding tanks of aircraft. A red dye is added so the area it covers can be identified when the retardant is dropped. Other colors have been used with retardants, but red is still the preferred color. Studies over the years have shown that Phos-Check and similar products are toxic to fish.
Retardant is used to slow or diminish a moving fire. Sometimes it is dropped to help ground crews establish a line of defense, or to prevent the spread of fire in inaccessible areas. Recently, manufacturers and fire crews have been experimenting with adding a foaming agent to the retardant. Under certain circumstances, the foam creates a better mixture to coat foliage and ground cover.
On occasion, the powder does not fully dissolve in the water, and creates clumps. Given the problem of strong winds, or an aircraft which is not precisely on target, and the retardant may come down on firefighters in the field. Whether it is hundreds of gallons of fluid, or fluid and clumps of fertilizer, men on the ground can be injured on impact.
If there is time for a warning, firefighters are advised to hit the dirt, face down, heads covered by their helmets. On rare occasions, men in the field have suffered broken bones from the impact of clumps of retardant. Most wildland firefighters, at sometime during their careers, returned from the field wearing the red retardant and dye.
In the case of water drops, there is no issue of solids, but there is still the possibility of injury from the impact of hundreds of gallons of water. Water drops from some helicopters are preceded by a siren, which, if heard, gives the firefighters some warning.
Kurt Kamm writes novels about fires and firefighters. A resident of Malibu, he has lived through several wildland fires. He is a regular visitor at the fire camps, stations and training academies of L.A. County Fire Department and CalFire. To learn more about his novels, One Foot in the Black, and Red Flag Warning, visit http://www.kurtkamm.com.
Retardant is used to slow or diminish a moving fire. Sometimes it is dropped to help ground crews establish a line of defense, or to prevent the spread of fire in inaccessible areas. Recently, manufacturers and fire crews have been experimenting with adding a foaming agent to the retardant. Under certain circumstances, the foam creates a better mixture to coat foliage and ground cover.
On occasion, the powder does not fully dissolve in the water, and creates clumps. Given the problem of strong winds, or an aircraft which is not precisely on target, and the retardant may come down on firefighters in the field. Whether it is hundreds of gallons of fluid, or fluid and clumps of fertilizer, men on the ground can be injured on impact.
If there is time for a warning, firefighters are advised to hit the dirt, face down, heads covered by their helmets. On rare occasions, men in the field have suffered broken bones from the impact of clumps of retardant. Most wildland firefighters, at sometime during their careers, returned from the field wearing the red retardant and dye.
In the case of water drops, there is no issue of solids, but there is still the possibility of injury from the impact of hundreds of gallons of water. Water drops from some helicopters are preceded by a siren, which, if heard, gives the firefighters some warning.
Kurt Kamm writes novels about fires and firefighters. A resident of Malibu, he has lived through several wildland fires. He is a regular visitor at the fire camps, stations and training academies of L.A. County Fire Department and CalFire. To learn more about his novels, One Foot in the Black, and Red Flag Warning, visit http://www.kurtkamm.com.
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