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Fighting Fire Gets Easier
Thomas Lee, Star Tribune
August 16, 2004
As any resident of the rain-starved West knows, wildfires can cause millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses.
But a small company based in Watkins, Minn., thinks it has a product that might give people a fighting chance to save their property.
International Barrier Technology Inc. recently acquired the patents to Pyrotite Fire Retardant Technology.
According to President and Chief Executive Mike Huddy, Pyrotite triples the burn-through resistance of wood. In other words, it would take a fire three times as long to burn through Pyrotite-treated wood.
That delay would give firefighters more time to reach a burning house before a fire completely consumes the structure.
"It prevents ignition [of a house] from the beginning," Huddy said. "It gives firefighters a chance to help."
Huddy envisions working with insurance companies to sell the technology to people who live in rural areas hit hard by droughts and wildfires.
Huddy describes Pyrotite as a non-combustible, non-toxic, inorganic material designed to prevent ignition and inhibit the spread of flames. The patented compound releases water when exposed to the heat of fire, absorbing and cooling the heat of a fire.
During product research and testing, the material has been used as a coating, a structural laminate, a foam and a cured and pulverized powder. Barrier International's first commercial application of Pyrotite is as a coating on plywood and oriented strand board to create fire-rated structural wood sheathing branded as Blazeguard.
International Barrier Technology hopes to aggressively expand from its East Coast marketing base into the West, which has battled large wildfires during the past several years.
"We see this as a great opportunity," said Huddy, who also hopes to license the technology to major home builders. The company, which employs 16 people, recently invested $2 million to upgrade and expand its prototype plant in Watkins.
Huddy said the company has benefited from the country's housing boom. International Barrier Technology, which trades as an over-the-counter stock, doubled its sales to $3 million in fiscal 2004 compared with the previous year.
Because the company's market share is relatively small, "we're confident that we will continue to grow no matter how the housing market fluctuates," Huddy said.
Thomas Lee is at tlee@startribune.com.
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