Monroe MI Fire Department to Adopt Environmentally Friendly Foam

The City of Monroe Fire Department has proposed an environmentally friendly approach to fighting fires.

Speaking at a city council work session, Captain Mike Foley and Chief Robert Wight talked about recent fire department purchases, including new firefighting foam without per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

According to Foley, the department currently uses Class A Foam to help extinguish fires, but this type of foam does contain PFAS.

The foam is mixed with the water supply on the trucks to quickly extinguish a fire. Firefighting foam is much quicker at taming a fire compared to regular water because of its chemical components. Class A Foam bonds with the carbon molecules to stop a fire.

"You cannot relight [the fire] because it bonds at a molecular level," Foley said. "It provides that much more fire suppression... you can really tell the difference."

According to Foley, the State Fire Marshall recently told the fire department to stop buying foam with PFAS in high quantities.

"The foam we are currently using, FireAde, has a low amount of PFAS, but it does contain PFAS," Foley said.

Foley said eventually all Class A Foam will not be allowed to contain PFAS.

"We thought we might as well get ahead of the game...and go with the environmental stuff," he said.

With a proposed budget of $50,000 from bond proceeds, $3,400 is for firefighting foam. That will supply the fire department with a years' worth of foam at 35 gallons a piece on two trucks. Class A Foam is a reoccurring item on the fire department's budget, according to Monroe City Manager Vincent Pastue.

Other proposed department upgrades include new hoses, lighting and extrication tools. Part of the upgrades stem from the National Fire Protection Agency changing equipment standards in 2015. Under the new NFPA standards, fire hoses need to be replaced every 10 years.

Pastue told the council the foam may come out of the fire department's general fund rather than the bond proceeds. "There was some whisper about environmental issues with the foam 15 years ago... but we had no idea," Foley said. "[PFAS] was completely legal and it worked really well, but they had to go back to the drawing board and think of something else."

The fire department's proposed upgrades will be voted on by the council at a later meeting.

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