There’s not much funny about California wildfire season, with more than 100,000 acres on fire across the state as of press time. So we’re really going to enjoy the one whimsical story to come from this year’s brush fires. An entire block of block of the Sonoma County town of Windsor was rendered pink Thursday after a Cal Fire air tanker accidentally dropped about 100 gallons of that bright pink liquid flame retardant on the neighborhood, resulting in the hilarity seen in the YouTube video below.
"I came outside, everything was pink," Windsor resident Alex Cruz told NBC Bay Area. "I've never seen this before."
According to CBS 5, the Cal Fire aircraft was flying into Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in response to a fire call from Petaluma. The tanker was carrying 1,000 gallons of the retardant, but only about 100 gallons were dropped on the 300 block of a street called Decanter Circle.
The liquid pink flame retardant is non-toxic to people, fish and wildlife, and for the most part comes off with just the application of water. "It's slippery when wet," Cal Fire’s Ben Nicholls told NBC Bay Area. "It's a slip hazard, has a reaction with automotive paint if it’s left on it, will create issues with the paint."
Cal Fire crews came out with firehoses and cleaned up the pink mess, which covered “nine houses, 12 cars, a camper, landscaping and the street” according to NBC Bay Area’s Jean Elle.
That pink stuff is apparently called Phos-Chek, and it is 85 percent water.
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