Firefighters use fog to combat coronavirus

MARION COUNTY, Fla. - A company says it can attack COVID-19 with a special fog machine.

“There is no clean-up prior to and there’s no clean up afterward,” said Robert Amick, executive director of the Florida State Firefighters Association (FSFA). “We just put it in there, we set it and we go.”

The fog was developed by a company called Paerosol.

“No one else has what we have,” Amick said. “It’s a U.S. Department of Energy patent that is being developed and is just now hitting the market. We’re just now commercializing it.”

Paerosol partnered with the FSFA to use this fog to clean the Florida State Fire College in Marion County. It took about three hours to clear the entire 18,000-square-foot college.

The fog, a mixture of water and salt, is said to kill over 99% of all germs.

“We’re disinfecting 100% of it,” Amick said. “All the hard surfaces, the soft surfaces, the ceiling, the floor, the walls, the equipment that’s in there. The chairs that have soft cushions, it’s going into that and disinfecting that as well.”

Paerosol is still awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Meanwhile, the FSFA has disinfected several buildings across the state.

“Fire stations, ambulances, municipalities, schools, single-family residences -- anywhere and everywhere. Someone needs us, we’ll come,” Amick said.

Through this partnership, Paerosol will give the FSFA one percent of its national sales back into the organization.