Pink powder is being used to fight California fires. it’s happening everywhere

As crews battle devastating wildfires in Southern California, vivid images have emerged of aerial tankers dropping bright red and pink powder over Los Angeles suburbs.

The attention-grabbing substance – fire retardant – is now a common sight in the area, covering driveways, roofs and cars.

Thousands of gallons of the substance were dropped last week to stop the flames from spreading, officials said.

But what’s actually in it, and how does it help fight wildfires?

The flame retardant is a product called Phos-Chek, sold by a company called Perimeter.

It has been used to fight fires in the US since 1963, and is the main long-term fire retardant used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is also the most commonly used fire retardant in the world, according to a 2022 report by the Associated Press.

The exact formula of Phos-Chek is not public knowledge, but the company has said in previous filings that the product is 80% water, 14% fertilizer-type salt, 6% coloring agent and corrosion inhibitor.

As for its color, the company said it is “a visual aid for pilots and firefighters.” It says that after being exposed to sunlight for a few days, the color fades to mud.

Retardants are typically sprayed on vegetation and land around a wildfire that is fire prone to prevent the flames from spreading to the area.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, retardants “slow the rate of spread by cooling and coating the fuel, deplete the flame of oxygen, and slow the rate of combustion of the fuel because the inorganic salts of the retardants bind to the fuel. “Changes the way it burns.”

Its use has been controversial in the past regarding its potential effects on the environment.

A lawsuit filed in 2022 by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, an organization made up of current and former U.S. Forest Service employees, accused the federal agency of violating the nation’s clean water laws by dumping chemical fire retardants into forests from planes.

It was argued that the chemical kills fish and is not effective.

The following year, a U.S. district judge agreed with the staff, but in his ruling allowed the Forest Service to continue using the retardant because it sought permission to do so from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The case has drawn attention to communities devastated by wildfires in the past, including the California town of Paradise, which was destroyed by blazes in 2018.

Its then-mayor, Greg Bolin, praised the judge’s decision, saying it ensures communities “have a fighting chance” in the event of a fire.

The Forest Service told NPR that this year, it eliminated the use of one type of Phos-Chek formula — Phos-Chek LC95 — in favor of another — MVP-FX — saying the latter is less toxic to wildlife. .

The Forest Service also has mandatory restrictions on dropping fire retardants in sensitive environmental areas such as waterways and endangered species habitats. There are exceptions to the ban, however, in cases when “human life or public safety is threatened.”