DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – For decades, fire departments across Illinois used a firefighting foam, known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), which turned out to be toxic and linked to cancer.
The use of the foam has since been banned, but fire departments continue storing it in large quantities, as removal could be expensive.
“We have 285 gallons and we have it stored in a central location here in Station 2 and looking to get rid of it,” Decatur Fire Chief Neil Elder told WAND News. “It was an expense. We were holding out, maybe we’d get some assistance from the state.”
The foam is effective in putting out fires and is even used by the military to extinguish aircraft fires. However, in recent years, the foam has been discovered to be toxic with links to cancer. The foam contains PFAs, which are considered a "forever chemical." Firefighters had no idea the foam was toxic.
“No clue, not at all. Not until the studies came out a few years ago that connected it to cancer,” Elder stated.
The Decatur Fire Department contacted other departments in the area to see if they would be interested in combining their quantities of the foam to have enough to get a lower price on removal.
The foam was just removed recently by an environmental company and is no longer on the firehouse property.
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