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Rapid City Journal - July 11, 2007 Gel protection system gets tested at Alabaugh Original Article HOT SPRINGS -- The big Alabaugh Fire south of Hot Springs has become a proving ground for Structure Protection Specialists, a Rapid City firm that sprays a protective gel on homes threatened by wildfire. And the young company has apparently passed the test. Gorden Sabo is the principal in Structure Protection Specialists and inventor of the process that mixes gel with water to quickly coat the threatened structures. This week, he is under contract with the state Division of Wildland Fires. Sabo said his two truck-mounted gel-spraying machines coated 20 to 25 homes in the path of the Alabaugh Fire since it began Saturday night. All but two were saved, he said. "Those two were in the process of being gelled when the fire blew up on us," he said. "We had to break away and leave them, for life safety reasons. It was burning over us." If there had been time to complete the spraying, Sabo believes they, too, would have been saved. In all, the fast-moving fire destroyed 33 homes and 50 outbuildings. It has also consumed 9,900 acres of grass and timber. Sabo, an electrician by trade, has been a firefighter with the Rockerville Volunteer Fire Department for 25 years. For the past six years, area fire suppression agencies have been using various kinds of gels and foams to protect structures. Sabo, too, has been tinkering with gels. He came up with a system that mixes the gel, a commercial product that contains tiny capsules of water, with regular water to form a fire-retardant seal. When his own neighborhood was threatened by the Battle Creek Fire in 2002, he used his gel system for the first time on his own home. Then he gelled 14 of his neighbors' homes. All were saved. He said other gel systems rely on a 50-pound backpack or take time to apply. "Mine is different for ease of use and simplicity," he said. His gel machine, mounted on a truck, is very mobile and offers several hours of protection, Sabo said. By last year, he had worked out the research-and-development details and began working professionally. Since then, Structure Protection Specialists has been called out to help with nine fires in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. And the company saved about 100 homes that were classified as unsaveable. The firm has been contracted by U.S. Division of Forestry, the S.D. Division of Forestry and AIG Insurance. And now, Sabo has teamed up with Steve Blote and Bill Wittrig to launch a new manufacturing company that will market the patented gel system to fire departments, neighborhood associations and possibly individual homeowners. |
