AN OPEN LETTER TO FIRE CHIEFS
What are the goals of a firefighter? Save lives. Save property.
Go home in one piece.
What are the goals of a Fire Chief? Do all that… on a budget.
How can Cold Fire help you do these four things?
- Put the fire out 2-10x faster
- Reducing risk exposure to firefighters
- Reducing environmental impact and cleanup
- Reducing chemical usage
When you're making purchasing decisions, the first thought is usually
"water is free." But water - by itself - is the least
effective extinguishing agent.
Buying and using foam is the most cost effective way to fight fire.
According to the Los Angeles FD, knockdown with foam is 3.36 times
faster, cooldown is 6 times faster, and total gallons used is 6
times less. And that's just with regular Class A foam.
Cold Fire puts the fire out in the fastest way possible, with the
least amount of damage to people and property. And it does it with
MUCH LESS PRODUCT than regular foam. Most regular foam uses 1-3%
dilution for Class A; Cold Fire can go down to 0.15% - that's 6X-20X
less product. A Class B foam (AFFF) typically uses 3-6%; Cold Fire
uses 1.5-3%, or half the product.
Plus, it doesn't expire. You'll never have to throw away unused
foam again.
Plus, getting the fire out twice as fast means HALF the wear
and tear on your equipment, so it lasts twice as long.
Plus, it's rated for both Class A and Class B (including polar
solvents), so you don't have to stock two or more types of foam.
And you don't have to worry about mixing them up.
Since many of the fires you work are of man-made materials, you
have a mix of both Class A and Class B materials - houses, cars,
work places, dumpsters, etc. That means a mix of wood, plastics,
rubber, chemicals and other nasty things that water isn't very good
at extinguishing.
They also release a lot of cancerous chemicals into the atmosphere.
And that's bad for not only your firefighters, but everyone within
breathing distance. How much benzene and tuolene is it OK to breathe?
Doesn't it make sense to reduce that as much as humanly possible?
Let's talk about the health and well-being of your firefighters.
There are the obvious dangers that come with being on the fire scene.
That's why you buy good turnout gear, PPE, SCBA and everything else.
Just by adding Cold Fire to your inventory, you can get the fire
out in half the time, cutting your firefighters' immediate risks
and exposure in half.
"Each year tens of thousands of firefighters are injured
while fighting fires, rescuing people, responding to hazardous
materials incidents, and training for their job," states
The Economic Consequences of Firefighter Injuries and Their Prevention.
"While the majority of injuries are minor, a significant
number are debilitating and career-ending. Such injuries exact
both a great human toll and financial toll."
But what about long term? That's what you should really be concerned
about. Every year there are more studies showing firefighters have
three times greater occurrence of cancer and other diseases, caused
by their exposure to toxic smoke and soot. That can mean millions
of dollars in long-term disability payments, increased insurance
costs, replacement personnel costs and the horror of seeing your
friends pass away before their time.
And while some city councils accept these insurance claims, others
are fighting them, making a bad situation even worse for the firefighters'
families. And as the economy worsens, and tax revenues dry up, the
city leaders are going to fight those insurance benefits even harder.
Cold Fire doesn't cure testicular cancer. But it can help get the
fire out faster, reducing FF's exposure to toxic smoke and soot.
It reduces ambient temperature faster than water, lowering heat
stress. That can translate into fewer heart attacks in the hours
after the fire.
A few facts from the US Fire Administration…
- 80,000 Firefighter injuries - 2007
- 118 Firefighter deaths - 2007
- Settlements to injured firefighters = $16.7 billion per year
Makes a few thousand dollars for a year's supply of Cold Fire seem
pretty reasonable, doesn't it? In short, here's a few of the hard
dollar costs Cold Fire can save you:
- Reduces Long Term Disability payments
- Reduces Worker's Comp
- Reduces Downtime & Paid Disability
- Reduces Death Benefits
I'm going to shoot straight with you. Cold Fire is more expensive
than cheap Class A foam. That's because it is more expensive to
make. It uses better ingredients. And that takes money. But it is
money well spent. Here's an apples-to-apples comparison:
- 500 gallons @ 1% = 5 gallons of Cheap Foam @ $10/gal = $50
- 500 gallons @ 0.15% = 0.75 gallons (3 quarts) of Cold Fire @
$30/gal = $22.50
It's like using a drop of Dawn to clean your dishes, or a quarter
cup of cheap detergent. The Dawn is much more cost effective.
It's 'green' and non-toxic, safe enough to drink; its HMIS is 0,0,0
- the same as water. I haven't seen ANY other foams that can say
that - only Cold Fire.
In fact, I challenge you to read the MSDS on the foams you currently
have on hand, especially the AFFF and AR-AFFF foams. The words 'narcosis'
and 'kidney failure' have a nasty way of coming up. But not with
Cold Fire. It's got the cleanest MSDS I've ever seen.
Let's talk politics. You have to save lives on a budget. The mayor
has to get re-elected. Cold Fire is very PR-friendly, which gives
the mayor lots to brag about:
- Fire Department Is 'going green'
- Less firefighter turnover due to reduced injuries
- Less capital expenditures on replacement equipment
- Lower insurance costs
- Less water usage
- Better servicing of rural citizens (less shuttling of water)
- Using cutting edge products while cutting costs
- Cold Fire lets you do more with less.
Politics play a role in fires with ecological impact. Having a
big fire is one thing, but having one where the EPA comes down on
you is another. The EPA can make you look bad, plus slap you with
staggering fines. Using Cold Fire helps minimize the environmental
impact of fire fighting, because it is so good at extinguishing
fire with man-made materials like liquid fuels, tires, oil wells,
and other toxic sources.
On a tire dump fire in East Texas they poured ONE MILLION gallons
of water on the tires, and it still didn't go out. Then they had
to HIRE Williams Hazard to come out with bulldozers and bury the
tires. That million gallons of water took all those toxic carcinogens
from the tires and put it into the ground water. Plus having to
admit defeat and hire an expensive outside contractor.
"But it's still more expensive than the cheap stuff."
Have you considered using a billing service? It's not just for EMS,
you know. Using a billing service means that the Cold Fire that
was an expense is now a revenue stream. The billing service works
with the property owners' or the car owners' insurance, not the
person himself. It's a way to charge for the product used, man-hours
and wear and tear on equipment. It's not a huge amount of money,
and not suitable for every fire, but it can definitely add up. We
can put you in touch with a couple great billing services that cost
you nothing out of pocket and handle all the paperwork for you.
It can't get any easier.
Cold Fire just makes sense. It saves money. It saves lives and
property. It's good for the environment. It helps you do your job
better, on a budget.
Give me a call, at 405-306-3062. If you've reached the end of this
letter, we've got a special deal to get you started, buy three pails
and get one free. Just mention the 'Fire Chiefs Letter' deal.
Doug Stafford
RDR Technologies
Cold Fire Distribution
405-306-3062
doug@rdrtechnologies.com
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