![]() It does very well to suppress fires, but it won’t last.” “Water is only so good because it dries out. “Retardant lasts and even works if it’s dry,” said Scott Upton, a former region chief and air attack group supervisor for California’s state fire agency. That can give firefighters time to steer flames away from inhabited areas and in extreme situations to evacuate people from danger. ![]() It’s designed to alter the way fire burns, making blazes less intense and slowing their advance. Forest Service to help fight fires, many of which originate or include federal land.įire retardant is a specialized mixture of water and chemicals including inorganic fertilizers or salts. State and local agencies lean heavily on the U.S. “Our brave firefighters need every tool in the toolbox to protect human lives and property against wildfires, and today’s ruling ensures we have a fighting chance this fire season.” “This case was very personal for us,” Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin said. Federal officials say those situations usually occurred by mistake and in less than 1% of the thousands of loads annually.Ī coalition that includes Paradise, California - where a 2018 blaze killed 85 people and destroyed the town - had said a court ruling that stopped the use of retardant would have put lives, homes and forests at risk. More than 200 loads of retardant got into waterways over the past decade. Wildfires across North America have grown bigger and more destructive over the past two decades as climate change warms the planet. Government officials say chemical fire retardant can be crucial to slowing the advance of dangerous blazes. The ruling came after came after environmentalists sued following revelations that the Forest Service dropped retardant into waterways hundreds of times over the past decade. ![]() Forest Service officials who said dropping retardant into areas with waterways was sometimes necessary to protect lives and property. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana. Halting the use of the red slurry material could have resulted in greater environmental damage from wildfires, said U.S. government can keep using chemical retardant dropped from aircraft to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law, a judge ruled Friday.
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