CAF Testing
This testing was conducted in July 2010 by a consortium of fire service and fire equipment instructors that were conducting CAFS training as part of the 81st annual Summer Municipal Fire School . This class is a portion of the Advanced Municipal Fire Operations courses presented at Texas A & M Universities “Brayton Fire Field” in College Station, Texas. The school is administered by the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) which conducts emergency services training year round and is known as one of the best worldwide.
The data gathered in the live fire testing bears witness to and reinforces the lessons learned over several decades of Class “A” and Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) fire fighting. The numbers compiled in these tests once again demonstrate definitively that Class “A” foam solution performs better than plain water and CAFS performs far superior to both solution and plain water applications in fire fighting. This validates the data acquired in many previous tests including the Salem Tests and the widely acknowledged Palmdale Burns.
Questions or comments regarding this research may be posted to the CompressedAirFoam.com website.
| Suppression Method | Water Only | Class A Foam Only | CAFS Only | *** | |||
| Ceiling Temperature at Beginning of Application (Degrees F) | 600 | 600 | 600 | ||||
| Ceiling Temperature After Interior Corner Application (Degrees F) |
500 | 500 | 400 | ||||
| Knock Down | Time to Achieve Knockdown | 8 seconds | 7 seconds | 3.5 seconds | |||
| Ceiling Temperature After Knockdown (degrees F) | 500 | 400 | 300 | ||||
| Gallons Used to Knockdown | 8 | 7 | 3.5 | ||||
| Class A Foam % | N/A | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | |||
| Onces of Concentrate | N/A | 4.48 | 2.24 | 1.33 | |||
| Mop Up | Time to Achieve Mop Up | 35.6 seconds (then rekindled) | 16 seconds | 8.5 seconds | |||
| Ceiling Temperature Immediately After Mop Up | 400 | 250 | 200 | ||||
| Gallons Used to Mop Up | 35 (didn’t extinguish) | 16 | 8.5 | ||||
| Ounces of Concentrate | N/A | 10.24 | 5.44 | 2.07 | |||
| Totals | Total Gallons Flowed | 43 | 23 | 12 | |||
| Total Ounces of Concentrate | N/A | 14.72 | 7.68 | 2.9 |
*** Shows total foam concentrate that would have been used if the % was .03.
Shaped tip 1 1/8" ID on CAFS line
Saberjet Nozzle for water and Class A Foam attack lines
60 GPM Flow
Straight-Stream application into interior corner
Straight-Stream application into the center of the fuel load
Pallets and hay were used for fuel
Complicating the Knockdown and Mop-up was that the application was from a distance and only from one side.
