14 • THE CALIFORNIA FIRE SERVICE MAGAZINE • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 magine a scenario where a helicopter, equipped with a foam generation system and proprietary flexible chute, could lay down 50,000 cubic feet of fire suppressing foam per minute for up to 14 minutes. Put another way, in one day such a system could create a minimum of 35 miles of fire line in a 10-hour period containing a wildland fire from the air. For comparison an air tanker with 4000 gallons of retardant in a 10-hour period will lay down a 7-mile fire line. This could fill a valuable niche allowing airtankers to concentrate on more dynamic areas of the fire. Sound far-fetched? Not so, says Larry Sukay, Deputy Assistant Chief (ret.), founder and CEO of Western States Fire Inc. (WSF), a San Diego-based company that is in the throes of developing just such a system, known as SKHI-EX. Time for a giant leap forward CEO Sukay is a man on a mission, and that mission is taking a revolutionary approach to wildland fire suppression. “For 80 years it has basically been, a constant improvement of what I call the bucket brigade,” says Sukay. “We throw water or retardant on the fire. The one thing that has changed in 80 years, is that the buckets have gotten larger and our tactics have improved.” The SKHI-EX system integrates foam, the delivery of foam, and aerial attack from helicopters in a complete system that cannot only deliver cost savings but could also make the wildland fireground safer for firefighters. As designed, the system can simultaneously lay down foam treatment lines, but can also direct foam, using the helicopter’s rotor wash and a proprietary bi-directional chute to create foam ‘safe zones’ where wildland crews could seek refuge in an emergency. “The thing that I think is the number one beneficial use of this potential technology is the safety aspect for firefighters,” notes Sukay. “If we have a group of firefighters who are about to be burned over, we can create a safe space for them by surrounding and incasing them with foam.” A History of Class A Foam There may be something in the water in the Western Pennsylvania town of Greensburg, home to a cutting-edge fire department where a teenage Larry Sukay was a Fire Explorer. That something in the water is firefighting foam. In 1958 Safety Development Corp. of Greensburg was formed to test the concept of using high expansion foam to fight coal mine fires. To augment their research beyond coal fires, they partnered with the Greensburg FD. Safety Development built an experimental foam generator mounted on a second-hand Jeep pickup chassis. The unit could generate 13,500 CFM of foam and was turned over to the Greensburg FD in May of 1961. The unit was used in drills and demonstrations during the summer months, but no fire of any importance occurred in Greensburg until October 19, 1961 when fire swept through the La Rose Shop, a popular women’s dress shop where five people lost their lives. The thick, heavy smoke spread very rapidly, carried by the ventilation system, and filling the building. In the opinion of all experienced observers, the building would have been gutted from basement to roof had high expansion foam not been used. Young Mr. Sukay was just entering kindergarten when those firefighters in Greensburg were experimenting with class A foam, but by 1973, Sukay, bitten now by the urge to enter the fire service as Fire Explorer, wrote a high school term paper on the efficiency of expansion foam for fire suppression. I By Gary Giacomo Buckets be gone! Foam from the air? Western States Fire’s SKHI-EX delivery system plans to revolutionize wildland fire suppression. Product Profile CEO of Western States Fire Larry Sukay.
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