Grace McCall Ryan Becker Daniel Donovan William Brown Collin Landwehr Team Phyre WILD FIRE RETARDANT

 Testable Question  What is the most efficient fire retardant in terms of retaining the fire? We will also compare the cost the and environmental impact. PURPOSE

 Fire Retardant  85% water, 10% ammonium phosphate and sulfate, and 5% iron oxide for color  Costs about $2 per gallon, usually need 1,000-3,000 gallons dropped  Can be detrimental to the environment  Water  Costs $368,645 to operate a heavy lift helicopter for one week  Water drops are not possible unless there is almost no wind and the BACKGROUND

 Independent Variable  Method of preventing the spread of wildfires  Dependent Variable  Number of trees burned after the fire line  Controlled Variables  Size of forest  Density of forest  Similar types of vegetation  Elevation  Gradient  Method  Separate a square mile of level forest into 20 even sections. Ten of these sections will be protected by fire retardant and the other ten are for water. Light a fire in each section and record percent burned after all the flames are gone.  A month after the test, we will go back to test the toxicity levels of nearby bodies of water PROPOSED INVESTIGATION

TEST AREA Forest Water Line Fire Retardant

Water TrialPercent Burned Burn Time (min) Flame Retardant TrialPercent Burned Burn Time (min) DATA COLLECTION

 If ammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphate (the fire retardant) is tested against the effectiveness of water, as well as cost and impact on the environment, then the retardant will be more effective at stopping the fire. This is because the retardant is a hydrate and layered, so the fire has to both burn through the fertilizer and the water. HYPOTHESIS

 C-130 is $6,600/hour, we need 16 hours  16($6,600)= $105,900  Fire retardant is $2/gallon, we need 2,000 gallons  2,000($2)= $4,000  For firefighters and testing the water toxicity we will allow $1,900 in the budget  Total cost of experiment: $112,000 COSTS

 Fire Retardant:  100 mL volumetric flask  5 g. Ammonium phosphate  5 g. Ammonium sulfate  5 g. Iron oxide  85 mL water Experiment:  6X7 model “forest” made up of matches PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT Retardant

 Results:  Water-  Burned through the retardant much faster  seconds  Out of 3 trials, 100% of the “forest” was burned.  Fire Retardant-  Greatly slowed the progress of the fire  seconds  1 st trial 0% of “forest” burned  2 nd trial 3% of “forest” burned  3 rd trial 10% of “forest” burned PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT

"Debate over Fire Retardant Toxicity Rages in West." Fox News. FOX News Network,22 June Web. 11 Mar "Retardant History." Retardant History. United States Forest Service, n.d. Web. 11 Mar Finely, Bruce. "Wildfire: Red Slurry's Toxic Dark Side." Denver Post. The Denver Post, 17 June Web. 11 Mar James, Randy. "What Are They Dumping on Wildfires?" Time. Time Inc., 02 Sept Web. 11 Mar BIBLIOGRAPHY