Snuffing Out Attacks

Snuffing Out Attacks

Technology Innovation Awards - Tampa Bay runner-up by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

Possibilities appear endless for BlastWrap, a film used in products such as bomb-resistant trash cans. Paul Bremer III, the former presidential envoy to Iraq, is now a company director.

Imagine a volcanic ash-filled plastic film that will contain the explosion of a bomb and extinguish it within five thousandths of a second, saving the lives of passersby and minimizing building damage.

It's called BlastWrap and it's sold by Clearwater-based BlastGard International Inc., a startup run by co-founder and CEO James Gordon, 64. The film was certified in July by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an anti-terrorism product.

Add to that coup BlastGard's recent addition of directors Paul Bremer III, the former presidential envoy to Iraq, and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Arnold Burns.

BlastGard has sold trash cans, made with BlastWrap, to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Amtrak.

"If an explosion occurs in our can, there's no fireball," Gordon says.

The cans absorb the energy of an explosion and extinguish the fire. BlastWrap, which includes perlite and fuseable salts, eliminates what is called reflective gas pressure.

"That is the key to why this is so successful," he says. "We mitigate 80% to 85% of the explosion."

Would-be clients for the cans, which sell for as much as $4,600, include public mass transit systems, Israel, the British Ministry of Defense and others susceptible to bombings.

"It's sad we have to think about creating products to protect us from terrorist activities," Gordon says. "But the reality is that's what we have to do. Terrorist attacks are aimed at mass transit, airports, rail, bus or any areas where there's a tremendous amount of population."

Last week, BlastGard sent its first shipment to Iraq. It was for $186,000 and included a Rapid Deployment Fortification Wall made with BlastWrap to withstand explosive devices or suicide car bombers. Gordon expects the U.S. Marines to place more orders once it sees how well the wall holds up.

Blast-mitigating trash cans are the publicly held company's (OTCBB: BLGA) first product. It's also developing about nine others, including the fortification walls, blast-mitigated airplane cargo holds and BlastWrap containers for rockets being transported.

The three-year-old company has invested about $4 million so far in the development of the BlastWrap products, Gordon says.

Glass mitigation is not a new concept. It has been around for years. It's the flexible packaging the company created that makes the product valuable. BlastGard has applied for patents.

Making money hasn't been easy.

For the first nine months of the year, BlastGard reported a net loss of $708,747, compared to a loss of $378,309 in the same period the previous year.

"It takes time for a young company to develop products and get the recognition," Gordon says. "Once you get the recognition, it goes from A to Z real quick. But getting from A to B is the tough part."

He says sales will pick up briskly once the Washington, D.C.-based American Public Transportation Association releases its much anticipated recommendations that glass-mitigated trash receptacles should be used in areas of critical concern, such as subways and airports. It should be released before the end of the year.

"We really anticipated we'd be ahead right now because of the trash cans," the CEO says. "But everyone has been waiting to see what happens with the creation of standards and tests. It has kind of dragged out."

BlastGard's senior vice president, Kevin Sharpe, a recognized expert on blast mitigation who worked for the British Ministry of Defense for 24 years, is a member of the group that came up with the recommendations.

"We can become profitable very quickly," Gordon says. "A few orders and we'll be there."