HOT SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) Firefighters say a super-absorbing gel can save many homes that are now lost in forest fires.
The gel helps water stick to houses.
A system that quickly coats a house has been developed by a veteran Black Hills firefighter.
Gorden Sabo (SAY'-boh) says the gel system which is being marketed to fire departments in several states has proved to be reliable and has saved at least 150 homes so far this year.
State Wildland Fire Suppression Coordinator Joe Lowe (LOH) says fire gel works.
Lowe says it's not more widely used because it's not well-known and the firefighting sector is steeped in a culture that does not readily embrace new technology.
Fire engines in the Black Hills carry gel that was supplied by the state a few years ago
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
New fire-retardant gel can save homes - Yahoo! News
New fire-retardant gel can save homes - Yahoo! News: 
AP Photo: In this photo released by Steve Blote, Gorden Sabo points a torch at his finger...
By JOE KAFKA, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 9, 2:50 PM ET
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. - It was the most intense fire ever recorded in the Black Hills National Forest, but nearly all homes coated with a slimy gel were saved while dozens of houses nearby burned to the ground.
The gel was a super-absorbent polymer that can hold many times its weight in water and clings well to vertical surfaces and glass. It is mixed with water and then can be sprayed on homes with a truck-mounted hose or a backpack apparatus, or dropped from a plane.
The substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years.
"This stuff really works," Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. "We're talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it'll save it when the fire gets there."
Kim Zagaris, fire chief in the California Office of Emergency Services, said all 122 of the fire trucks under his command carry gel. And county officials in San Diego recently gave the Palomar Mountain volunteer fire department a grant to buy gel that residents can spray on their homes.
In the last decade, thousands of homes — mostly in Rocky Mountain and Western states — have been destroyed by wildfires. Many were ignited by embers that rained down on them well ahead of the flames.
Foam stands up to the heat from fire for only 15 minutes or so, while gel can protect for several hours, and can withstand direct flames, according to firefighters. And the gel — a few hundred dollars' worth can save a home — can be replenished with water merely by misting it every few hours. It is biodegradable and can be washed off with a hose or a pressure sprayer.
Some firefighters say gel is not more widely used because it is still new, the firefighting industry can be slow to embrace new technology, and the backpack sprayers can be slow and unreliable at higher altitudes.
In the July wildfire that destroyed 33 homes near Hot Springs, a Black Hills tourist town, electrician and volunteer firefighter Gorden Sabo helped spray 27 homes with gel. Twenty-five of them withstood the blaze, he said.
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