The St. Regis, Superior and West End volunteer fire departments got together at the West End’s Saltese fire station to practice with a new type of fire-fighting agent.

According to Frank Magee, volunteer firefighter and chairman of the West End Volunteer Fire and Rescue Board of Trustees, the relatively new fire-fighting agent is called F-500 and can be used on all the types of fires that are normally encountered by Mineral County firefighters, including wildland, structure, gasoline, diesel, and automobile fires.

F-500 dramatically increases the effectiveness of water alone and can replace both type A and Type B foams, simplifying the previous need to stock both types of foam for various types of fire.

Additionally, some fires involve several types of fuels and one type of foam may not work on the various types of fuels that are burning. F-500 works on just about everything Mineral County firefighters are likely to encounter, so it is much more effective and simpler to use.

During the training, firefighters applied the F-500 product to the car fire and were able to completely extinguish the fire in one minute and 20 seconds.

According to Magee, another advantage of F-500 is its ability to actually cool the item that is burning, so firefighters may more easily move previously burning items out of the way.

Also, F-500 is environmentally friendly and biodegradable.

Both the West End and St. Regis fire departments now have the F-500 product available on their fire engines.