This document discusses environmental suppression and its impacts when fighting landfill fires. It notes that suppression efforts can overwhelm leachate collection systems and cause runoff and slope instability issues. Large amounts of water used for suppression, like in the case study of a dump fire in Asia, can result in massive slope failures. The document also discusses using foams to aid suppression efforts while minimizing environmental impacts, as foams reduce water's surface tension to better penetrate materials. However, some foams can be toxic, so an understanding of foam toxicity and approved varieties is important when selecting suppression methods for landfill fires.

1. 1
Other Concerns

2. 2
Environmental Suppression
What does this mean? When is it
applied?

3. 3
Environmental Suppression
 What is …ES
 Understanding your suppression tactics have
an impact on the ecosystem (physical and
biological components) and acting to minimize
these impacts.

4. Suppression Impacts
 Magnitude of impacts will vary depending on
the location of the facility and surrounding
land use
 Must account for impacts to soil, water, air,
and sociological factors
 Your Decisions may increase damage to the
environment
 Your Lack of Decision may increase damage
to the environment

5. Impacting the Environment

6. Impacts from Suppression
Water
 Overwhelming the leachate collection
system
 Runoff
 Slope instability
6

7. Suppression Water
 Accounting for millions of gallons of water
7

8. For Example
 Using three Type I Fire Engines with deck
guns
 Flow rate is 1,000 gpm per engine = 3,000 gpm
 Fire flow for one hour = 180,000 gallons
 1 gallon of water weighs 8.35 lbs
 Fire flow for one hour weighs = 1,503,000 lbs or 751 T
 You can quickly have a water supply,
control, disposal, and stability issue
8

9. Case Study
 Dump in Asia
 Millions of gallons of water used to attempt
to suppress the dump fire
 Resulting in massive slope failure
9

10. Case Study
10

11. Slope Stability
 Two key observations
 Do not cut the toe of the slope
 Do not load the top
11

12. Leachate Management
12
 In 2005 researchers examined
landfill leachates during and after an
accidental landfill fire and compared
constituents to those occurring in
the leachate under normal
conditions.
 The fire at the landfill site was put
out by excavation and cooling by
use of water.
 Researchers concluded that landfill
fires extinguished by excavation
may lead to elevated leachate
levels, especially COD and heavy
metals, but that this is only a short-
term effect. Source: Øygard et al., 2005

13. 13
Foams
 Water has limitations in cooling and penetrating
class A fuels (e.g., wood, paper) because of a
naturally high surface tension.
 This high surface tension causes water to form
into droplets
 Class A foam reduces surface tension and
allows more water to penetrate.
 Foams aid in the prevention of rekindles.

14. 14
Special Sauces
 Class A - Ordinary
combustible
 Class B – Flammable
Liquid and gas
 Class C – Electrical
 Class D – Metal Fires
 Class K – Cooking oils

15. 15
Which Foam to Use?
 Select the Class of Foam
 Most LF Fires will be Class A
 Some fires involve Class D materials
 Examine the Environmental Issues
 Determine the supply
 Do not mix foams
 Unknown compatibility
 Find the MSDS

16. Foams
 Why
 Special Sauce?
 Toxicity
 Wildland Foam Tested
 Class A Foams available on the list
3M Foam – Fluorinated Surfactants
No Longer Produced
PFOS in worker as high as 12 ppm
PFOS General pop 30 – 50 ppb

17. 17Source: www.fs.fed.us
Approved Foams 2009
 Per USDA Forest Service
 Ansul Silv-Ex
 FireFoam 103B 3
 Phos-Chek WD 881 4
 FireFoam 104
 Angus ForExpan S
 Pyrocap B-136
 Phos-Chek WD 881-C
 Phos-Chek Anchor Point
 National Foam KnockDown
 Summit FlameOut
 Angus Hi-Combat A 5
 Buckeye Platinum Class A Foam
 Chemguard First Class 6
 Solberg Fire-Brake 3150A 7
 Phos-Chek First Response
See
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/documents/qpl_fm1.pdf

18. 18
Foam Toxicity
 Fish Toxicity of Class A Foam
Concentrates
 Rainbow Trout, 60 post hatch, 96 hr exposure
 LC50 ranged from 10 mg/L to 156 mg/L for
approved foams
 The lower values indicate greater toxicity
 10 of 15 foam were below or at 30 mg/L
 One drop in your gas tank (13 gallons) is ~ 1 ppm
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/wfcs/performance/documents/fish_fm_sum.pdf

19. Fire Foam May Damage the
Environment
 London Free Press – Pottersburg Creek Spill
 May 14, 2007
 Fire Suppressant (F-500) blamed for fish kill
 15 gallons of foam mixed with 2,000 water
 Hundreds of fish killed
http://www.lfpress.com/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?h=video_pottersburg&s=hottopics
Video