Could this Siberian invention combat future forest infernos?

At the last count almost a quarter of a million firefighters and volunteers were involved in battling blazes around Russia. Countless thousands of tons of water have been hosed at fires or dropped from the air by planes and helicopters. 

Yet with the heatwave and drought continuing over much of Siberia, the destruction to nature in some of the world's remotest areas is unforgiving and relentless.

Ideas are clearly needed for more effective ways of countering this annual scourge, especially as the trend towards drier and hotter summers means the taiga can more easily become a tinderbox. 

Recently interntational science journals have highlighted intriguing research work in Novosibirsk on the use of salt solution aerosols as a way of dousing forest fires. The results are hopeful and could mean a Siberian solution to a (not only) Siberian problem if investment can be found to develop the technology.

Pioneered by Professor Oleg Korobeinichev of the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, the technique involves the use of mixtures of organophosphorus and iodine-containing compounds and inert diluents.

'The results of these measurements were used to develop and test new effective fire-suppression compositions whose components exhibit a synergetic effect and to estimate the lower temperature limit of their application,' said a recent issue of Science Letter.

The journal reported: 'The results of laboratory experiments were verified by full-scale tests in which two types of model fire sources were extinguished by salt solution aerosols'.

The tests, shown in exclusive pictures supplied the The Siberian Times, demonstrated that 'short-term action of an aerosol cloud of an aqueous solution of potassium ferrocyanide' ....... 'on the flame front of a surface forest fire led to suppression of gas-phase combustion, and in the case of wood burning, to complete flame extinction'.

In plainer language the researchers concluded that 'in fire suppression by the aerosol, the volumetric flow rate of this fire suppressant was found to be 30 times lower than the standard flow rate of pure water from a fire hose'.

Potentially, then, such aerosols, which are designed to be 'fired' from a vehicle though could also be targeted from an aircraft, are far more effective than squirting ordinary water at a forest fire. 

'The use of reactive aerosol significantly reduces the amount of water required to extinguish the fire,' added Professor Korobeinichev.

This presumably means that any anti-fire appliance could be more effective and carry more fire-suppressing agents to the scene of a blaze. 

While the method itself is seen as fully tested, the professor said that there is a need to improve the system of spraying the fire. 

'For its practical application, it requires an improved aerosol generator,' he said.

Professor Oleg Korobeinichev of the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, can be contacted at the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia, tel. +7 3832 333346