Fire extinguisher bomb

fire extinguisher bomb

We have a new candidate for our collection of Lame-Ass Ideas for suppressing wildfires. Bazalt, a Russian company that makes aircraft bombs, mortar bombs, and grenade launchers, has designed a bomb intended to put out a forest fire. It can detonate either on the ground or above it, and dispenses a liquid over 1,000 square meters, about 1/4 acre. Bazalt says one aircraft could carry up to 100 of these fire extinguisher bombs. A video HERE shows the contraption in action.

And we thought the hazards to a firefighter from the aerially delivered 2,000-pound containers of water were pretty significant. I would not want to be fighting a fire that is supported by aircraft dropping these bombs, but that’s just me. But there might be an application for them at haz-mat sites or burning nuclear power plants that are inaccessible to firefighters.

fire extinguisher bomb

PCAD, a re-invented air tanker system, is tested

PCAD test air tanker drop
PCAD containers are dropped from a C-130 in a test at Yuma Proving Grounds. Photo by Mark Schauer

As we said on May 14, Caylym Technologies inexplicably continues to develop what they call a “precision container aerial delivery system” (PCAD) for suppressing wildfires. The system attempts to re-invent air tankers by dropping 200-gallon plywood/plastic containers of retardant or water, each weighing about 2,000 pounds, from a normally-configured C-130.

Here is a video of one of the early tests of the system conducted on September 25, 2007:

Now they are conducting additional tests of the system at the Yuma Proving Grounds, mapping the ground distribution of the four-foot-square plywood skid boards, the cardboard boxes, and the 200-gallon plastic containers after a drop. We assume they will eventually set up a grid of measuring cups to map the coverage level of retardant, if they ever advance to that stage.

PCAD test air tanker drop
Geodetic surveyor Jerry Wells uses a GPS to map the ridiculous amount of debris dumped onto the ground after a test of the PCAD at Yuma Proving Grounds. Photo by Mark Schauer.

The Yuma Sun describes the delivery system:

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Patent awarded for containerized air drop system

Caylym PCAD drop
Caylym photo (click to see larger version)

Caylym Technologies inexplicably continues to develop what they call a “precision container aerial delivery system” (PCAD) for suppressing wildfires. In fact, they recently issued a press release announcing that Canada issued a patent for their system, which involves shoving up to 14 containers of water or retardant, each weighing about 2,000 pounds, out the rear door of a C-130 aircraft. The 200 gallons of water are supposed to disperse from each of the paper containers, but in the photo above from their web site, it appears that at least one container seems to be hurtling toward the ground, possibly still full of liquid?  It’s hard to tell, and it is the only photo found on their web site that shows the containers after they leave the aircraft.

Since they are so proud of their system, it seems odd that they don’t have videos on their web site showing one of the drops in progress.

If there is any chance in hell that a full 2,000-pound container would impact the ground, there is no way a firefighter could be within 1/2 mile of the drop. And even if there is a 100% guarantee that the containers will all empty, how much damage could even an empty container weighing 100 pounds do to someone on the ground?  And then there’s the issue of finding and removing from remote locations the 14, 100-pound empty containers from each drop.

The company claims they could operate at night, primarily because the aircraft is equipped with GPS.

By utilizing modern aviation technology and GPS, these aircraft are capable of combating wildfires in mountainous terrain, at night, in very limited visibility. Think of the possibilities!

Yes. Just think. Please.

This becomes the latest addition to our lame-ass ideas category.

UPDATE July 23, 2010:

The system was recently tested at the Yuma Proving Grounds.

L.A. County Board of Supervisors has the solution to the wildfire problem

A member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Michael D. Antonovich, has what he feels is the solution to the wildfire problem: an automated fire detection system. According to the LA Times, Supervisor Antonovich stated:

The goal of a technology-based system would be to identify new fires as they start and have a programmed airborne response within minutes to suppress the fire before it spreads.

This brings up two issues:

1. Automated fire detection

There is nothing wrong with the concept of an automated fire detection system, in fact there are a number of them up and running around the world, primarily in very remote areas. But the detection of fires in a county with a population of almost 10 million is not the problem. I would venture a guess that with the millions of cell phones in L. A. County, that all fires are reported within minutes.

2. “Airborne response within minutes to suppress the fire before it spreads”

(Sigh) It appears that this is just another politician that thinks aircraft put out fires. The fire agencies already have a “programmed airborne response”. Under certain weather and fuel conditions, and when appropriate, aerial fire resources are dispatched along with ground units. And it takes boots on the ground to suppress a fire.

The L. A. County Board of Supervisors at their meeting today will consider Supervisor Antonovich’s proposal, and if accepted, the county’s Quality and Productivity Commission would be directed to study options and report back in four months.

We are tagging this as a lame-ass idea.

UPDATE @ 4:10 p.m. January 13:

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Board of Supervisors did decide yesterday to pursue the concept, and instructed the county’s Quality and Productivity Commission to look for technology that could detect wildfires so that they could be “put out within minutes of starting”. Their report is due in May.

Patent application for a disposable air tanker

Patent application disposable air tanker
Patent application

John A. Hoffman, who appears to be associated with Fire Termination Equipment, Inc., has applied for a U. S. Patent for a very different type of air tanker. This air tanker would be an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that would be transported by a mother ship and released near the fire. It would then be piloted remotely from either the mother ship or from the ground, and after dropping retardant on the fire, would land to reload, or might be a single use aircraft and would be “destroyed in the release step”. In the latter case the UAV would be “possibly constructed of frangible material so as to crash into the fire area”.

The patent application includes two options for transporting one or more UAVs to the fire area.

  1. Externally mounted to the aircraft to the “underbelly, side of the transport aircraft, or the like”.
  2. “The present invention also contemplates that one or more UAVs can be placed within the transport aircraft, and either released from a rear exit, such as a B-727 having a rear opening door, or ejected from a side interface wherein the transport aircraft includes side-access doors fitted with a mechanism including rails or the like to move in position the UAV from inside of the transport aircraft to outside of the transport aircraft for launch or jettison.”

If this invention ever sees the light of day, which is EXTREMELY DOUBTFUL, firefighters will see air tankers crashing into the ground around them as the aircraft are “destroyed in the release step”. And this would be a benefit to firefighters, the public, and the environment how, exactly? I can’t even imagine what the cost per drop would be of a system like this. And then there are the indirect costs of removing the wreckage, repairing the environmental damage, and payment of the death benefits to the families of any firefighters that might be killed by the crashing aircraft.

As we said earlier, the inventor, Mr. Hoffman, appears to be associated with Fire Termination Equipment, Inc., according to the patent application. The company has an unusual and very vague idea to develop a Rapid Aerial Inferno Neutralization System (RAIN) that, according to the web site:

…delivers massive payloads (of artificial rain) to fires with surgical precision, and it can be deployed 24/7 and in any weather, including winds and smoke.

This RAIN system may be the same one that is described in the patent application, but the web site offers no details about how it would work. The site does have a some information about experiments conducted with small UAVs.

We put these concepts into our “lame-ass ideas” category.

Truck dispenses dry chemical to suppress wildfires

Velocity FireForce's truck-mounted dry chemical system. Photo: Velocity FireForce
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.

A new way to transport water to fires

Someone whose name I believe is Steve Shoap, judging from the email address he leaves, keeps leaving comments attached to various articles here on Wildfire Today attempting to promote his invention. We have not approved any of the comments for publication because our policy is to not bother our readers with spam and unsolicited advertisements.

But this invention of his is supposed to be a “new way to fight wildfires”. It involves truck-mounted reels of large diameter hose (LDH) that has high voltage electric power wires embedded into the walls of the LDH.  An electric generator energizes the wires which power water pumps at intervals along the hose. (And we all know it’s a good idea to have water and high voltage electricity in close proximity.)

From safersmallercars.com

He estimates the cost for one mile of the system would be $210,000 including the generator.

Disregarding the water/electricity combination for a moment, there may be some special situations or types of fires where a system like this would be useful, but generally, getting water to a wildfire so that it can be utilized by firefighters is not the biggest factor that prevents wildfires from being controlled.

What do you think about this new invention?

Rocket-launched nozzle

Some “rocket scientists” have designed a device that supposedly would use compressed gas to launch a nozzle with a connected fire hose into a burning building, after which the hose would be charged and the nozzle would flop around destroying everything in the room before finally being pulled out the window by the weight of the charged line, causing the firefighters below to run like hell.

Firing that thing right next to your face, and then having 100 feet of fire hose dragged at Mach 3 across the side of your head, would no doubt give you a story to tell around the fire house for years to come. At least the guy in the photo is wearing SOME personal protective equipment… GLOVES!

I especially like the way the “firefighter” is carrying the hatchet, slipped casually through his belt, ready to put out the fire with a few swift chops or perform a do-it-yourself kidney biopsy.