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What is forest fire retardant made of?
Long-term retardants, mixed for delivery to the fire, contain about 85 percent water, 10 percent fertilizer, and 5 percent minor ingredients: colorant (iron oxide – rust, or fugitive color that fades with exposure to sunlight), thickener (natural gum and clay), corrosion inhibitors, stabilizers, and bactericides.
Why is Phos-Chek red?
A fixed-wing aircraft drops Phos-Chek on the Whittier fire in Goleta in 2017. It’s a sight now synonymous with California’s fire season: A tanker aircraft flies over vegetation and drops a stream of red. But what exactly is that stuff? It’s fire retardant, used in preemptive strikes to keep flames from spreading.
Is fire retardant bad for the environment?
We do know that sprayed fire retardants feed harmful algal blooms along waterways and are toxic to fish. It demonstrates the potential for exposure to fire retardants to create ripple effects in the environment and wildlife far from where they are first used.
Can fire retardant kill plants?
Retardants are mostly fertilizer (di-ammonium phosphate, usually); thus, they are at least theoretically capable of “burning” sensitive plants (like a foliar fertilizer would, if applied inappropriately). None of those are likely to be acutely toxic, but nevertheless any retardant that gets on people/pets/plants etc.
What chemicals are in forest fires?
All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot). Smoke can contain many different chemicals, including aldehydes, acid gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, styrene, metals and dioxins.
Does the pink fire retardant wash off?
Do’s And Don’ts Of Fire Retardant Cleaning – Phos-Chek is designed to wash off in light rain, which is good news for many property owners this week. If there is any remaining, it can be rinsed off with running water.