INTENSITY OF BURNING FLAME IN DIFFERENT FIRE RETARDANTS

This research aimed to evaluate the effect of different types of fire retardants and dosages in the efficiency of fighting forest fires. The experiment was conducted in combustion table in the laboratory with 4 types of flame retardants (WD 881, RFC-88, F-500 and HMIS 1-0-0 DPnB) at 3 concentrations (0.5%, 1% and 1.5%) plus water as control. The dosage of the tail of the retardant mixture with water was 0.5 liter per square meter of area. For the analysis it was measured the time that it took to the fire to consume the area with the application of the product and the distance between the top of the parcel and the location where the fire was extinguished. During the firing of each plot (treatment / repeat) the following variables were evaluated: relative humidity, wind speed, time spent by the fire to burn the plot with and without the product and the distance advanced by the fire in the parcel with the product. Retardants with greater efficiency were F-500, HMIS 1-0-0 DPnB and WD 881, that showed significant differences by Tukey test at 5% probability, differentiating the control and the RFC-88. The most effective concentration was 1.5% with the lowest levels of flammability in all cases.