Flame-inhibiting Coverings

Risk Reduction Category

Fire Protective Materials

Technology Description

Wildfire is a twofold issue for electric utilities who must take precautions to prevent ignition along their widely distributed assets as well as protect those assets from damage caused by passing wildfires. Wood poles are particularly vulnerable to fire and because of their unique characteristics, commercial products have been developed specifically for the unique treatment of wood poles. Therefore, the topic of wood poles is written up separately in the technology database. The more general topic of flame-inhibiting coverings includes a variety of synthetic coatings and materials that can be used to protect a other types of assets.

SunFire Defense advertises flexible flame retardant that can be manufactured into covers and frames for windows. One spray-on material called SPF 3000 (patented by SunFire Defense) may be used to treat various materials and fabrics to withstand up to 2300 degrees. This group creates wildfire home-protection systems. [1]

CanAm Scientific provides fire retardant coating applied to materials such as fabrics, wood, and plastics to make them nonflammable for a period of time. Fire Inhibitor, said to be non-toxic and non-corrosive, will not flame or spread fire. It is biodegradable, water soluble, and can reduce heat transfer up to 95%. [2] Buildings placed in areas prone to wildfires should be made of ignition-resistant construction materials (example Section 704A Ignition-Resistant Construction); typically, ignition-resistant construction materials include building materials such as stone, brick, and steel. [3]

Non-flammable composite materials, as used for composite utility poles, may be made into fire-resistant coverings. Composed of glass-fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP), these thermoset plastic, fire-resistant poles provided by RS Technologies have been through actual wildfires in California without burning, melting, or suffering structural damage. Therefore, glass-fiber-reinforced thermoset polymers might be formed into other shapes such as outdoor utility cabinets, fire shields, etc. [4]

Technical Readiness (Commercial Availability)

The following list of manufacturers is the product of an Internet search using a general description of the technology as the search term. Sometimes more than one variation on the search term is used. The objective is to identify the most demonstration-ready products available in the category. Toward assessing demonstration readiness, the manufacturer websites typically provide useful information such as writeups of successful use cases or field demonstrations, number of deployments, or other indicators. Where lack of information exists online, further inquiry is made by phone. Generally, one to three frontrunners emerge as being most ready for a field demonstration. Preference is given to manufacturers who sell to the United States, or, if emerging technology, those who have participated in US-based field demonstrations.

  1. SunFire Defense: Fire Shield Fabric (home defense system) https://sunfiredefense.com/products
  2. CanAm Scientific: Fire Inhibitor https://canamscientific.com/fire-inhibitor/
  3. Hardening Your Home https://www.readyforwildfire.org/
  4. Composite Poles Stand Up to Gigafires https://www.tdworld.com/wildfire/article/21236723/composite-poles-stand-up-to-gigafires
  5. RS Poles (manufacturer of composite poles) https://www.rspoles.com/solutions/products/poles

Implementations / Deployments

Southern California Edison (SCE) has installed composite poles in 40% of its service territory accounting for its high fire threat areas. This composite material has survived wildfires and has maintained its service strength.

Innovations as of Mid 2023

From Perimeter Solutions: ground-based, or ground-applied fire retardants for wildfire prevention in high risk areas: PHOS-CHEK Fortify and PHOS-CHEK LC-95W. These may be found on the USDA Forest Service Qualified Products List (QPL). [3]

Potential Enrichment Work Opportunity

References

[1] https://sunfiredefense.com/products

[2] https://canamscientific.com/fire-inhibitor/

[3] https://www.readyforwildfire.org/

[4] https://www.tdworld.com/wildfire/article/21236723/composite-poles-stand-up-to-gigafires

[5] https://www.rspoles.com/solutions/products/poles