Fighting fire with foam; it may sound unusual, but officials with the Grand Junction Fire Department said it's the future of the industry.

The new technology has been implemented at various fire departments across the country.

It's called a Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) and it's already been installed on two of Grand Junctions fire engines.

According to Training Officer Mike Gazdak, the new technology mixes a very small amount of biodegradable foam with air and water.

Gazdak said the foam provides a safer environment for crews to fight the fire, helps clear the smoke more quickly and uses quite a bit less water than traditional methods of firefighting.

Captains with the Summit Fire Department near Flagstaff, Arizona, were in Grand Junction Thursday morning to introduce our firefighters to the new system.

"It kind of has the consistency of shaving cream, and it will hang on the building for a long time," said Gazdak.

"It will actually insulate the building from the effects of fire. And you know, keep it a little bit more protected than if we just put plain water on the building," he added.

And with drought conditions persisting on the Western Slope, conserving water is something everyone's being asked to do. So the new system couldn't come at a more perfect time.

Gazdak said, "It's a good thing, I mean if we can put a fire out with less water, that's great, make it safer for our firefighters. And it also gives us an opportunity for wildland fires, haystacks, things like that."

Fire officials said the foam technology is also excellent at treating structure fires, particularly wood, and can even pretreat buildings which are at risk for exposure.

Fire officials believe it's possible that all of Grand Junction's fire engines will be equipped with the compressed foam technology in the future.