(Clarification: the water pipe comes up through the center of the house or along the roof to the center of the house, and extends a few feet above the top of the house, so the water can flow evenly over the entire roof area and surrounding lawn area. Just didn't want anyone to think I was talking about flooding the interior of the house.)

Sounds interesting, but I can't imagine a fire blazing that hot would be affected by run-off water. Brick and roofing tile don't absorb water very well and dry up fairly quickly. The wood, I would think, would swell and cause more problems later on (hence, water damage).

Interesting idea, but I don't know how executable it is. However, perhaps if this were used in combination with a liquid gel system that coats he house with a LARGE amount of goop that expands and insulates with heat... and that is possibly water soluble for easy removal.

Excellent suggestion. How about the foam they use at airports for planes? Your house would be a giant foam ball; once the threat was past the fire dept could hose down your house for you and rinse the foam off. Water is definitely ok for the environment. I would guess the foam at the airport is also environmentally safe. If there were high winds though the foam could blow away it would seem, not sure how dense it is. The Dallas Fire Department are a pretty friendly bunch. Every once in a while I go by and bounce stuff off of them. I will stop by and ask about the gel and the foam. Any fire personnel viewing this site, please comment. Issues are environment, high wind and what other factors besides will it even work? Thanks again!

The "ball of foam" concept might also have homeland security applications. When a house is fully covered by a decent layer of foam, in effect it's going to be almost airtight due to the surface tension of the bubbles in the foam. That could prevent airborne toxics from getting in to the house. For example, from a train derailment or a terrorist attack.

The problem of course is to get the foam to stick to the building in a layer sufficient to do the job. And if it does prevent exchange of air with the outside, the second problem is the question of how long the occupants can safely remain inside before they start running out of oxygen.

Ask your friend the firefighter about this. There might even be government money available to do R&D.

Thanks for the great feedback gg, I appreciate your seeing the bigger picture on it. The Homeland Security aspect is great. I am going to try and stop by the FD today or tomorrow and will write back. Thanks.

My concerns would be1. gutters? you would want the water to cover the whole house and exterior walls.2. Power source? where will the power come from to run the pump? usually the power is off in a situation like this. and to run a pump big enough to pour water all over the house in that amount would be fairly big.

Other than those right now, I would say that it is a great idea and these couple of problems can be remedied pretty easily.

Sean - I appreciate your comments. The gutter could pose a problem although I envision this as shooting the water in the air and having it rain down but still, that would have to be addressed. If a neighbors house were on fire, your power probably would not go off. If it were a wild fire then those chances are vastly increased, so a generator would be required in the wild fire areas at least. Now about my visit to the fire department -

Sorry for delay. I put this info in a few weeks ago and made the mistake of hitting the "Back" button. All text erased.

Basically the senior fire official I spoke with said that fire burns at 3k degrees at times, and water would vaporize. So what temperatures are wild fires? He also said that if 2 or 3 neighbors turned this system on, the water supply would evaporate pretty quick in that neighborhood. He concurred on the foam concept, stating a dense enough foam might hold up against the flames. With wild fires creating their own winds in a fire, the next question would be whether a dense enough foam could be developed to withstand high winds. Realize also that in a wild fire situation you would generally have quite a bit of notice before the fire arrived and could foam your house down in advance of the fire and winds. The foam would just have to hold until the fire and wind passed. In a situation where the neighbors house were on fire, wind most likely would not be an issue. SS

Large chemical plant fire in neighboring Fort Worth today finally extinquished with airport style foam when water would not help. This helped prevent additional chemical runoff with water initially used. I checked a couple of searches on fire foam, and found a company who does produce a small foam fire suppresion system for homes. Their system is designed for the home owner/user to spray manually onto either fires or areas immediately threatened by fire. If there were a way to feed this into a yard sprinkler system you could cover your lawn and surrounding area with foam, or, if it were incorporated into a roof top sprinkler type system, you could possibly coat the house and yard. The foam sticks to the side of your house, is heavy and environmentally friendly. See the link for photos and additional info: http://www.firesolutionsonline.com/homefireprevention.htm SS

Two fires in Dallas area in 2 weeks required fire fighters to use foam. Environmental issue arose when florist in area of fires noticed sudsy water when filling vases. Turns out that the foam when dissipating can leave drinking water sudsy for a few days, however, in Dallas they shut that water station down and opened all the fire hydrants to drain the supply re-routing from other stations. Fairly quick fix but it alarmed people. Bottom line, foam is effective and safe for the environment. Imagine a fire sprinkler system in a building that produces foam all the way to the ceiling in every room of a building. It would be easier to clean up than water sprinklers and the damage they cause - with the right foam it could be like certain foam that dissipates by itself and reduces itself to ash after a short period of time. Dust and vaccum to clean up afterwards. Particularly nice in attic, where it would not matter as long as the foam broke down within a week. If your roof were struck by lighting (fairly common in Texas) and caught fire, filling the interior area of the attic with more foam than could fit in the area instantaneously upon detection of heat/smoke, the fire would snuff itself out fast. Foam has great potential in all kinds of fire fighting situations, even in vehicles potentially.

fire detectors or smoke detectors around the patio.

never store your gas grill under a patio cover or next to the house for any reason

When a fire starts and the propaine bottle explodes it will blow the brick wall in and all the doors around it, plus open up even more of the roof line to the fire.

I know this from personal experience.

don't the fire fighters use this technique if they get caught in a fire truck when a forest fire just explodes and they are caught in it. I assume you would have the water come out under pressure and the there would need to be more than one pipe to ensure proper coverage.it would be like a sprinkler system for the house to create a kind of water force field. It would also be advisable to have your own water tank and some kind of water pump with a generator to provide electricity just in case . if every home owner in these areas got together and worked on this it could proably help a lot.

You could have several small pipes on the outside of the house, at the rear for appearance sake. You could have a tank of water for each pipe, with a battery run pump, or run on compressed air. You would therefore be independent of local utilities. As far as damaging the outside, wood, etc, it shouldn't be any worse than rain. The nozzles would have standard sprinkler heads that pop when heat hits them. (You wouldn't need to be around to turn the system on.)

A variation on my previous would be to have a control box at the front of the property, where a special lock-box key would turn the system on. Firemen would have the key. In this case, the heat activated sprinkler head would not be used.

Water is no contest to fire because it evaporates so quickly, requires to much of a precious resource (water), and water does not cling to vertical surfaces. There are Compressed Air Foam Units on the market that are almost better than what some fire departments have. The foam will create a film approximately 1 to 4 inches thick, clings to vertical surfaces and ceilings, and will last for almost 44 minutes. There are also oil based gels that can be sprayed on a house to protect it up to 20 hours. The gels are difficult to remove, but there will still be a house to come home to. The foams they use on home are a Class A (Airports use Class B-toxic). Class As are non toxic, biodegradable, non-corrosive, and have a shelf life of many years. There are different foam units on the market, but they do not all work the same. The one we have is extremely easy to operate and we can have a layer of foam covering our house in 5 minutes. We cannot even get a fire department out here that fast.

And may I add, that the foam units that fire solutions have require compressed air tanks such as the ones you get from a scuba shop. The water source will only be the attached tank. When your air runs out then your done. A frameless Compressed Air Foam System is more expensive but your fire fighting capabilities are unlimited, the foam is a drier and more dense than the one developed by fire solutions. Check out the FL series at snuffer.com and tell them Stacey sent you.