US testing new fire retardant, critics push other methods
BOISE, IDAHO » U. S. officials are testing a new wildfire retardant after two decades of buying millions of gallons annually from one supplier, but watchdogs say the expensive strategy is overly fixated on aerial attacks at the expense of hiring more fire-line digging ground crews.
The Forest Service used more than 50 million gallons of retardant for the first time in 2020 as increasingly destructive wildfires plague the West. It exceeded 50 million gallons again last year to fight some of the largest and longest- duration wildfires in history in California and other states. The fire retardant cost those two years reached nearly $200 million.
Over the previous 10 years, the agency used 30 million gallons annually.
“No two wildfires are the same, and thus it’s critical for fire managers to have different tools available to them for different circumstances a fire may present,” the Forest Service said in an email. “Fire retardant is simply one of those tools.”
The Forest Service said tests started last summer are continuing this summer with a magnesium- chloride- based retardant from Fortress.
Fortress contends its retardants are effective and better for the environment than products offered by Perimeter Solutions. That company says its ammonium-phosphate-based retardants are superior.
Fortress started in 2014 with mainly former wildland firefighters who aimed to create a more effective fire retardant that’s better
for the environment. It has facilities in California, Montana and Wyoming, and describes itself as the only alternative to fertilizerbased fire retardants.
The company is headed by Chief Executive Officer Bob Burnham, who started his career as a hotshot crew member fighting wildfires and ultimately rose to become a Type 1 incident commander, directing hundreds of firefighters against some of the nation’s largest wildfires. He often called in aircraft to disperse plumes of red fire retardant, a decision he said he wonders about now after learning more about fertilizer-based retardants and developing a new retardant.
“This new fire retardant is better,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot less damaging to our sensitive planet resources, and it’s going to be a lot better fire retardant on the ground.”
The main ingredient in Fortress products, magnesium chloride, is extracted from the Great Salt Lake in Utah, a method and process the company says is more environmentally friendly and less greenhouse-gas producing than mining and processing phosphate.