Aspirated Class A foam found superior to plain water for darkening fires
Preliminary fire tests completed in 1995 showed conclusively that aspirated Class A foam is superior to a straight stream of plain water, which needs a 50 percent higher flow rate to darken the same fire, reports C. Bruce Edwards, research project coordinator. Edwards is research director of FireTech Engineering, Inc. in Vancouver, Canada, and deputy chief of the Wabasca (Alberta) Volunteer Fire Department. The research, which began in 1992, was funded by the Canadian Forces Fire Marshall, Forestry Canada, Green Plan, and the private sector.
The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs adopted a resolution which projects that–if research confirms that Class A foam is as good as preliminary tests suggest–adopting foam technology could save a billion dollars annually in direct and indirect fire loss. This corresponds to about a $10 billion annual saving in preventable fire loss in North America.
