What is the flame retardant that planes are dropping on the LA fires?

[240B]

What is the flame retardant that planes are dropping on the LA fires?

NPR
By Bill Chappell
January 10, 2025

Air tankers are dropping thousands of gallons of red flame retardant in the hills around Los Angeles as firefighters attempt to limit the devastation from multiple wildfires.

Images of vivid red clouds enveloping trees and scrubland prompt two questions: What is it, and what's in it?

"It's primarily a product called Phos-Chek LC95, which is sold by a company called Perimeter," Daniel McCurry, an associate professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California, tells NPR.

"It's been used for decades by the Forest Service," he says. "It's one of maybe only two products currently approved for aerial use by the Forest Service."

Air tankers and chemical fire retardants have been used since the 1950s, allowing firefighters to reach difficult spots. The U.S. Forest Service says retardants are used to "slow the rate of spread by cooling and coating fuels, depleting the fire of oxygen, and slowing the rate of fuel combustion as the retardant's inorganic salts change how fuels burn."

So, what's in it?
"It's basically a mixture of water, fertilizer, and then the red color that you see is just rust," McCurry says.

(more)
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/10/nx-s1-5254179/los-angeles-wildfires-flame-retardant

[Wingnut]

If you were exposed to flame retardant used to save homes and lives during the jan 2025 LA fire and have experienced health issues...you may be entitled to compensation.  Call today.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Stacey Abrams's old  clothing would smother most, if not all of the LA fires.

It would be a heavy lift  however.