Burned to Earth – The Poetry of Science todayheadline

Between the ash-fall
and sun-scars,
a bitter trace remains –
scattered metals
threaded into earth’s skin,
silent poisons
etched by unseen hands.
Wind carries remnants
of what settled
when flames faltered,
carving a path
through soil’s skin,
leaching into root-threads
that thirst without knowing.
In the hollowed ground,
the residue waits –
unspooling
it finds its way
into bone-water,
unseen,
yet heavy.

An airtanker plane releases a plume of red fire retardant over the advancing Chelan Butte wildfire in Chelan, Washington in August 2015, as smoke billows across the charred hillsides (Image Credit: Ben Brooks from Fife WA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).

This poem is inspired by recent research, which has found that wildfire suppressants contain toxic metals.

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe in the American West, leading to an increased use of fire suppression products such as long-term fire retardants, water enhancers, and Class A foams. These products are essential for controlling wildfires, but their formulations are often protected as trade secrets, making it difficult to fully understand their environmental impact. After wildfires, higher levels of metals have been detected in soils and surface waters, particularly near areas where wilderness meets urban development. This has usually been linked to ash from burnt vegetation or pollution from nearby cities. However, the role of fire suppression products in contributing to these metal concentrations has been largely overlooked.

This research examined metal concentrations in several fire suppression products, including those approved by the U.S. Forest Service and others available for consumer use. It found that long-term fire retardants contained toxic metals, such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium, at levels up to 2,880 times greater than what is allowed in drinking water. These concentrations could also exceed safety thresholds for aquatic life, posing a risk to local ecosystems when released into the environment. In contrast, water enhancers and Class A foams contained lower metal concentrations. The study estimated that between 2009 and 2021, approximately 380,000 kilograms of toxic metals were introduced into the environment through fire retardant use in the U.S. These findings highlight the need for greater transparency about the contents of fire suppression products and a reassessment of their environmental impact.