Testing fluorine-free firefighting foams

Dr Niall Ramsden and Dr Eleanor Lister look at the efforts of Lastfire Group members The ISSUE of transitioning to fluorine-free foams is undoubtedly the greatest challenge currently facing industrial firefighters. Lastfire, the industry group developing best practices in storage tank fire hazard management, has taken a pragmatic approach. It is recognised that it is inevitable. It is time to stop the emotional statements and the comparison with previous types of foam and instead focus on making the process as efficient, cost effective and practicable as possible. It is also seen as an opportunity to develop a much better database and understanding of critical foam performance criteria in order to optimise a foam’s performance through equipment design, tactics and application method as well as foam concentrate formulation. Of course, there are many aspects to getting the transition right and ensuring sustainable system assurance, such as achieving correct proportioning rate and assessing environmental issues of replacement foams. Lastfire is developing guidance on all of these but the most critical issue, though, is of course fire performance. Lastfire has carried out the most...