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Fighting fire: Aerial tanker in a can By Tim Omarzu Half the nation’s air tankers were grounded Monday, raising concern about firefighters’ ability to snuff out Nevada wildfires. But if you reside amongst the sagebrush, you don’t rely on an air tanker, two salesmen say. You can buy an outdoor sprinkler system to spray fire retardant—the same stuff dumped by air tankers—onto your home’s exterior. “This is like allowing a homeowner to have an aerial tanker on call,” said Jim Brock. Brock and another salesman, Don Rue, stopped by the Sparks Tribune’s offices out of the blue Wednesday afternoon to show off the Firebreak Spray System, which they were towing in a trailer. It’s a pressurized tank that holds fire retardant. Spend $3,750 and you get the basic 120 gallon system hooked up to a hose. If a wildfire’s on the way, you douse your house with fire retardant and then hightail it out of harm’s way. “It’s good for a couple of weeks, minimum,” Brock said of the retardant coating. Or, for more money, you can have the retardant tank hooked up to sprinkler heads on your roof and the eaves of your house. The sprinkler system can be built into a new home or retrofitted into an existing home. Then with the flick of a switch at home—or remotely, via a phone call—the system will activate and coat your house and yard with a healthy dose of fire retardant. The city of Sparks already requires interior fire sprinklers for some new homes that are difficult for firefighters to reach. This is the same concept. But it protects a home’s exterior. The Firebreak Spray System was developed by Jim Aamodt, the same man who invented misters used to keep produce fresh at supermarkets, Brock said. “The guy who invented those…he has taken that technology and applied it” to home fire protection, Brock said. So far, Aamodt’s company has produced about 80 of the exterior sprinkler systems. The two Colorado based salesman stopped by the Sparks Tribune en route to South Lake Tahoe. They were slated to demonstrate the exterior sprinkler system there to the Lower Tahoe Basin Fire Safe Council. For more information
about the Firebreak Spray System or having one installed, check the
website www.fireveil.com or call the Company at 1-866-421-3473.
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