Many South Lake Tahoe residents can apply home flame retardant with insurer help

Home flame retardant - South Lake Tahoe

Several insurance companies are hoping to support their customers with fire prevention spray.

South Lake Tahoe residents in many neighborhoods threatened by the Caldor Fire have been watching trucks driving around offering home flame retardant spray.

The All-Risk Shield product is being offered as additional exterior protection against wildfires.

The company’s crew members are applying the home flame retardant product on the vegetation surrounding the homes to help reduce the risk of flames traveling to structures such as houses and garages. Moreover, the service isn’t paid entirely out-of-pocket by the homeowners. Instead, it is being provided to the customers in those high-risk areas as a part of an agreement between the policyholders and their insurance companies.

The company that produces the spray for All-Risk Shield is called Perimeter Solutions. It makes the clear colored substance used for home application as well as the bright red fire retardant dropped by aircraft. The company’s director, Wes Bolsen, has been in South Lake Tahoe to supervise the spraying process.

Home flame retardant - retardant spray

The flame retardant spray is meant to offer an additional layer of protection against wildfire damage.

“They’ve done a nice job with the defensible space out from the home but obviously I’m still a little concerned about some of the ladder fuel,” said Bolsen as his teams applied the product called Phos-Chek Fortify.

The primary ingredient in that spray product is phosphate, which is commonly found in garden fertilizers.

“It’s safe for pets, it’s safe for humans,” assured Bolsen about the phosphate in the product. The spray was developed to continue its fire protection benefits even after some rain has fallen on it. This helps to reduce the need for additional applications, even when the area starts to get some rain again.

“One to two inches of rain, it’s still providing fire retardant effectiveness,” he said. This home flame retardant formula with water resistance is relatively new. It was formulated at Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This is the second real fire season it’s been tested and proven out on roadsides, with utilities, with insurance companies, like we’re here doing today, to protect homes, to prevent ignitions,” said Bolsen.

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