The flame-retardant chemicals were already being released and were controlling the fire adequately enough, but that still didn't help the wreck that the bridge had become.
So when Mr. Shen, who sells flame-retardant chemicals for a British company, returned to his native Shanghai this month to visit friends, he had a rude surprise.
Additive and reactive flame-retardant chemicals can both function in the vapor (gaseous) or condensed (solid) phase.
Common sense implies that inhaling the fumes from flame-retardant chemicals and highly corrosive acids isn't a good idea.
Although it was widely believed that Roberts had an allergic reaction to flame-retardant chemicals, he was secretly an asthmatic and the chemicals made his breathing worse.
One fire in Shamrock off I-44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa gutted an unoccupied school and resisted barrages of flame-retardant chemicals dropped from a four-engine tanker plane.
There is also a fairly poisonous family of flame-retardant chemicals used in most electronics.
Organic wool mattresses not only help regulate body temperature but don't contain harmful flame-retardant chemicals.
Many consumers recall the controversy in the 1970's over Tris, a flame-retardant chemical used in textiles.
All objects on set were sprayed with flame-retardant chemicals.