| New fires in the Los Angeles area are prompting more residents to evacuate. Today Austin Carr writes about some of the crews working behind the scenes to reduce the threat to people and property. Plus: The future for green stocks, and the gas station chain that's a tourist trap and an economic engine. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. To counter the wind-whipped blazes throughout Southern California this month, Perimeter Solutions Inc. has churned out tons and tons of Phos-Chek MVP-Fx. You may not recognize the name of Perimeter's flagship product, but you'd surely recognize its color: that chalky red slurry dropping from humongous planes to stop the wildfires' spread around Los Angeles. While the aerial acrobatics of firefighting pilots has rightfully captured the public's attention, a logistical ballet on the ground is what's keeping these airdrops flowing. Perimeter, the dominant provider of chemical retardants, had to ramp up Phos-Chek production to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and oversee complex distribution to a slew of air-attack bases. "I've been in the business since 1991 and have never seen anything like this, especially in the month of January," Chief Operating Officer Shannon Horn says.  A firefighting aircraft drops Phos-Chek near homes during the Palisades Fire on Jan. 10. Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images For a Bloomberg Businessweek profile in 2021, I spent time with Perimeter's team at one of these air-attack bases in California, where pilots, firefighters and other operation crews were training for the worst consequences of red flag events. Naïvely, I just assumed Phos-Chek was magically available, like a battery recharger. But a huge amount of work happens behind the scenes to ensure resupplies are at the ready, from manufacturing plants in places like Rancho Cucamonga and Sacramento to on-site support services at 74 bases, mostly in the western US. The key ingredient in Phos-Chek is ammonium phosphate, a combustion-inhibiting salt. It's produced as a powder and shipped in bulk, usually in big trailers or 2,000-pound "Phos-bins" or "super sacks." Once delivered to the air-attack bases, the powder is dumped into massive batch mixers that swirl the retardant around with water until it's at the right gummy viscosity. Depending on their mixing-system size, Perimeter's "mix masters" can make between 18,500 and 30,000 gallons per hour at each base, where tarmacs are often stained maroon. (During my visit to one, I remember thinking it looked like Perimeter workers were making a giant vat of Hawaiian Punch.) Next, the Phos-Chek is piped to airtankers and other planes. "It's like a full-service gas station," Horn says. "We mix it, load it, put it on the aircraft, and off they go, unload and return." Phos-Chek isn't designed to drop on flames directly. Rather, it helps contain fires, streaking around them to cut off or slow their spread. The reddish hue—like disintegrated terra-cotta or what some might even call pink—helps pilots see previous airdrop lines and determine where to discharge the next batch. Perimeter has tested blue and white alternatives, but bright red has proved the most visible from above. Technically, it's referred to as a "fugitive colored retardant," meaning it's formulated to fade away over time with enough exposure to sun and precipitation. Leading up to this month's fires, Horn says government agencies were wise to keep more bases open in light of California's extensive drought. But it wasn't enough for the infernos that followed, and it took time to mobilize larger counterattacks. "Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough resources quick enough to get into some of these areas with the high winds—Mother Nature just was not allowing us to do what we could do typically with Cal Fire and the US Forest Service," Horn says. "It was very, very tragic." The company has invested significantly in faster response times, but its long-term hope is that the country will recognize the need for more preventive solutions, such as applying retardants and suppressants before the start of the fire season in high-risk areas. "It's a challenge to proactively get people to spend the money before the smoke is in the air," Horn says. With fires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas increasingly contained and rain finally expected for the weekend, Perimeter had reduced its manufacturing. But then new wildfires erupted yesterday and today around LA, signaling the catastrophe is far from over. Perimeter says it's fully prepared to scale Phos-Chek production back up to meet the operational demands. | 
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