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A MALFUNCTIONING FIRE alarm has caused flame-retardant foam to engulf a Californian airport.

The incident occurred at Mineta San Jose International Airport yesterday, leaving the entire hangar area together with a nearby city street looking like the land of cotton.

While it may look idyllic, firefighters advised the public to avoid the foam, which was several feet deep, as it is a skin irritant

Much of the foam now appears to be gone.

The substance itself is a fire retardant chemical and emanated from the hangar’s fire prevention system, San Jose fire Captain Mitch Matlow told local media outlet The Mercury News.

Matlow said the retardant discharged accidentally and began spilling out in the morning. All of the foam is released when the fire system goes off.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the sudden failure of the alarm system.

“The purpose is to prevent a flammable liquid fire inside the hangar from spreading,” Matlow said. “If there had been a fire, this system would’ve worked very well.”

By the afternoon, the pulsating flow had surrounded two tanker trucks, reached to the bottom of a stop sign and filled the entire stretch of the street.

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While clean-up workers asked people to stay out of the foam, one cyclist pedaled straight through the fluffy mass, emerging covered in foam to laughing onlookers. The rider, Blake Harrington, said he could not see through it even when he stood up on his bike.

“Someone had to do it,” Harrington told San Francisco area TV station KTVU-TV, saying the foam felt and smelled like soap.

With AP

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