This breakthrough gel could help save homes during wildfire season
This breakthrough gel could help save homes during wildfire season
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Gels sprayed onto buildings and expand to create a kind of shield to flames. A new gel could better stop homes from catching fire, researchers have found, as the US battles yet another intense wildfire season. Gels, or “water-enhancers”, contain absorbent polymers designed to change the physical characteristics of water, and improve its ability to cling to vertical and smooth surfaces.
![[A home is engulfed in flames during the Thompson Fire in northern California last month. Stanford University researchers say their gel could protect homes like these for longer than current commercial gels.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/03/13/California_Wildfires_51807.jpg)
The gels can be sprayed onto buildings and expand to create a kind of shield to flames. The gels are used by firefighters when attacking blazes but can also be purchased by homeowners, although they are expensive at roughly $125 a gallon. And that need is becoming much more urgent. More than five million acres have been destroyed by wildfire this year across the states including the explosive Park Fire, which ignited last month in California. The blaze tore through more than 400,000 acres, destroying 637 buildings in its path.
Scientists say that the human-caused climate crisis is making wildfires more extreme by raising temperatures and intensifying drought conditions, with western states among one of the worst affected regions. The gels depend on the water they contain to suppress wildfires but because blazes can burn at hundreds or even thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, the water locked in the gel often evaporates quickly.
“Under typical wildfire conditions, current water-enhancing gels dry out in 45 minutes,” he said. “We’ve developed a gel that would have a broader application window – you can spray it further in advance of the fire and still get the benefit of the protection – and it will work better when the fire comes.”.
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