Dispatches Firefighters spray foam on a small aircraft that crashed and caught fire on a California freeway. CONFERENCE PREVIEW FIGURING OUT FOAM A PAIR OF CONFERENCE SESSIONS WILL ADDRESS UPDATES AND EMERGING QUESTIONS AROUND FLUORINE-FREE FIREFIGHTING FOAMS By Jesse Roman A 16 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2024 s recently as a few years ago, a world without aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF as it's commonly known, was hard for some fire departments and fire protection engineers to wrap their heads around. Most knew that the substance they relied on to put out messy liquid fuel fires was going away, but details around what the replacement substance would be, how it would perform, and what the transition might look like remained mysteries. Thanks to extensive research supported by the United States military and the Fire Protection Research Foundation, many of those questions are now being answered. Several important updates on these issues will be addressed in a pair of education sessions at the JEFF GRITCHEN/DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA/ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER VIA GETTY IMAGES