sea water putting out fires

[getonwithit]

why dont countries ie barbados and costal areas of australia that are having severe droughts and huge bush fires use sea water to put the fires out

[jno]

I think the Aussies do - see picture 18

http://www.boston.com...ictoria_australi.html

Maybe Barbados doesn't have the helicopters.

[paddywak]

as jno says it's common practice in some places. check this wiki site and scroll down to water tankers
http://en.wikipedia.o.../Aerial_firefighting.
Some years ago, I think it was 1990, while we were holidaying on Zante there was a large part of the island closed due to a fire in the mountains and for several days part of the entertainment was sitting in the beach bars watching the flying boats scooping up water, circling round over the fire and "water bombing" it.

[getonwithit]

ok so sea water can be used and there is no reason why fire engines could not use sea water to put out fires

[jno]

I guess not, but they'd presumably have to have very long hoses to reach from Surfers' Paradise to the outback.