Presenter: Joseph Scheffey

Various water additives are available in today’s marketplace that claim to provide advantageous performance characteristics for fire control and vapor mitigation. Of particular interest are additives that report to provide superior fire suppression capabilities through emulsification or encapsulation. However, a scientific assessment of these various additives is lacking, and the fire protection community would benefit from an evaluation of the various available water additives for fire control and vapor mitigation. To address this situation, a Fire Protection Research Foundation study was established to provide a comprehensive evaluation of water additives used for fire control and vapor mitigation, with the intent to clarify the fire protection benefit of using water with additives for fire suppression versus water without additives.