New Hate for Big Oil.

The latest news on the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is that it will make landfall as early as tomorrow evening. Governor Bobby Jindahl of Louisiana is mobilizing a united effort to lessen the environmental impact on the beaches, wildlife, tourism, and the shrimping and fishing industries there.

The untold story here is not that the rig had caught fire after an explosion, or that it sank and damaged the well head. The real story here is that the efforts to extinguish the fire are what sank the rig! These rigs (oil platforms) are floating vessels that are permanently moored to the seabed far below. So the question arises, why did British Petroleum try to extinguish a fire on a floating oil platform with water instead of foam?

After what happened on the Air Carrier U.S.S. Forestall, the United States Navy, (which I served in) trains every recruit as a fireman. Every fireman knows that you cannot fight an oil fire or many other chemical fires with water. Water only spreads the fire around because the chemicals are lighter than water and the viscosity is so different. Even some certain solids are best extinguished with foam. Expanding foam quickly smothers the fire and chokes off its access to the oxygen that is vital for sustained combustion. The heat remains, but without oxygen the flames are quickly extinguished.

Knowing this, why then did they choose to fight the fire with water? They only succeeded in reducing the buoyancy of the platform to the point that it became unstable and sank falling onto the well head a mile below the surface of the water and thereby damaging the well casing at three points on the way down.

And now of course the flip-flopping Governor of Florida has penned a letter to Obama petitioning for the end to "drill baby drill" and all exploration off shore. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. This may just doom us to forever purchasing oil from hostile nations overseas. BP should be skewered for this, not necessarily for the environmental impact alone, but also (and especially) for the socioeconomic fallout for United States citizens as well.

And for God's sake BP start stocking fire fighting foam on board your oil platforms, and train every single employee in firefighting like the United States Navy does. And keep them current on their firefighting knowledge and techniques. This catastrophe was entirely avoidable.