The Cold Fire Story
Page 1 of 12
by Dr. Addison Bain, Ph.D.
Purpose
The purpose of this booklet is to provide interested parties pertinent information about the product called COLD FIRE®. The primary focus includes those entities responsible in the management of wildland fires.
Background
COLD FIRE®(CF) is one of the products produced by FireFreeze Worldwide, Inc. in Rockaway, New Jersey. CF has been used as a firefighting agent for local fire departments, the racecar industry, as a cool-down agent for plumbers/welders and for wildland firefighting interests in other countries. Seeing CF as a valuable tool for use in wildland firefighting the challenge was undertaken to work with the US Forestry Service (FS) to obtain their approval, with the objective of getting CF on the FS Qualified Product List (QPL).
The policy of federal agencies is to use only qualified products (NFES 2724 chapter 12). Although a significant amount of testing of CF had been performed by a number of US and Canadian laboratories, this was not an acceptable substitute by the FS who use a specific test protocol. CF is a very unique product, derivative of German origin, constituting a well-formulated mix of several plant species. Aside from the plant extracts are the mineral and salt makeup naturally adsorbed from the respective unique soils. No chemicals are added.
The product does not contain any phosphate or bromine derivatives, or polymers common to many retardant and extinguishing agents. It is the discovery that the final product mix when blended with water takes on special characteristics to enhance the overall efficiency of controlling Class A, Class B and Class D fires that make CF an effective, safe and environmentally friendly agent.