NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 27

Firefighters discharge foam onto a simulated aircraft fire during
a drill last year in Ankara, Turkey. For decades, AFFF has been
a mainstay at airports around the world for its ability to quickly
extinguish liquid fuel fires.
Extensive testing by the Fire Protection
Research Foundation, the
US Department of Defense, and the
petroleum industry research group
LASTFIRE has shown that many of
these new products can be effective at
extinguishing liquid fuel fires under
the right conditions.
Unlike AFFF, however, the effectiveness
of fluorine-free foam comes
with a lot of caveats and complexities,
said Jerry Back, a researcher at Jensen
Hughes. Over the last five years, Back
has conducted hundreds of fire tests
on the capabilities of fluorine-free
foams. " These fluorine-free foams are
not a drop-in replacement for AFFF;
they are new products with different
characteristics and use different
methods for putting out the fire, " Back
told me in an interview this summer.
Although the new foams perform
" reasonably well, " their different
properties mean that " the transition
from AFFF is going to be much more
complicated than you would initially
believe, " he said.
Recognizing an urgent need for
guidance, the Fire Protection Research
Foundation has released two seminal
reports since 2020 on the topic,
both coauthored by Back. The latest,
" Firefighting Foams: Fire Service
Roadmap, " published in June, aims to
help fire departments understand the
considerations for choosing a foam to
replace AFFF, as well as the numerous
factors, including new training and
equipment, that will go along with it.
Those decisions will be critical, as
testing conducted by the Research
Foundation has shown that the performance
of new fluorine-free foams
can vary dramatically depending on
factors such as the foam manufacturer,
the type of fuel burning, how
aspirated the foam is, the discharge
devices used, and the techniques and
tactics of the firefighters during the
incident. Even when those factors
align perfectly, Back said, it can still
take twice as much foam and twice
as long to extinguish a liquid fuel fire
as it does with AFFF. " Because of the
variables, one of the things that we
emphasize in the roadmap document
is that the end user, independent of
who it is, is going to need to do their
homework, " he added.
Those layers of complexity make the
transition question difficult to answer,
according to experts like Edward
Hawthorne, the recently retired global
emergency response manager for Shell
Oil.
" The body of work that Jerry and the
Research Foundation have done, as well
as work by the Department of Defense
and LASTFIRE, make me confident that
we have agents that can put out spill
fires and fires in liquid fuel tanks, " said
Hawthorne, who is also an assistant fire
chief in Texas. " I believe that the new
foams are ready for prime time. Now
we have to make sure the end users are
ready for prime time, too. "
Although much of the industry is
bullish on the potential of the new
foams, swapping out the old for the
new will likely come with a steep
learning curve and additional costs.
Choosing which fluorine-free foam to
use among the myriad options available
is just the first step for fire departments.
After that comes a plethora of
other issues, such as how to dispose of
the old AFFF, how to decontaminate
old equipment, what new equipment
might be necessary, and what new tactics
and trainings need to be developed.
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022

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