Velocity FireForce's truck-mounted dry chemical system. Photo: Velocity FireForce
That headline might be a little optimistic, but Velocity FireForce has invented a method for applying very large quantities of a dry chemical with the objective of suppressing wildfires.
Their web site (warning–a video will start automatically; the same video as above) does not provide any details about what the chemical is, or what the environmental effects would be. Aside from the environmental issues, many wildland fires occur during wind events, which would be very problematical for applying what amounts to dust.
We put this in the category of “lame-ass ideas” for suppressing wildfires.
So what happens when you try to discharge a dry chemical extingulisher into the wind?
With the load this rig carries it’s going to be dusting a lot of country and people. I wonder how toxic this stuff is…
another nice idea, but in an article above this one some forestry group is suing fire agencies for dropping retardant to stop a wildland fire that killed some fish.. I can only imagine the fallout over dumping thousands of pounds of some dry chemical all over the forests to stop a wildland fire.
The idea is novel, but is has flaws. Limited to roads, same turnaround time or greater than a conventional tender… and so forth. And his demo video… a few barrels of “fuel” with 15 tons of dry chem in 5 minutes, with most of it being shot blind, I don’t see the effectiveness.
It may work with regular retardant on a unique situation, but on the whole, I don’t see it working.