How fire extinguisher works?

Vigyan Chakrabarti 

In this article I will tell you a bit about how a fire extinguisher works.

Firstly let’s understand why we need a fire extinguisher. The fire extinguisher is used to put out fires. But then why not wait for the fire brigade to come?? That’s because by the time we contact them and they come with the fire extinguishing services the fire would have grown and it would cause more damage. Instead, if we take the fire extinguisher and contain the fire, it will take less time to put out and will also less damage will be caused.

Okay, now to understand how a fire extinguisher works. There is a pin in every fire extinguisher to stop it from spraying the propellant. If you want to use it then you have to pull the pin off. Inside the strong steel canister is a tube containing high pressure gas. The handle has a sharp steel pin attached to it. The last element present in the steel canister is the propellant. An important point is that the whole canister is not filled with propellant. When we press the handle, the sharp pin punctures the tube and the high pressure gas is released. The gas forces the propellant to move out through the tube in the front of the canister. 

A lot of people think pressing the handle harder will bring more of the propellant out. That’s a misconception. You can’t control the fast the propellant comes out, but you can only control when the propellant comes out. 

Hope you found this useful. Some people think that fire extinguishers hardly ever come in use. Now you know how the fire extinguisher sometimes saves lives and sometimes buildings.

The system in Ganga Vertica is simple. Whenever there is a fire in your house. You should crack the glass in front of the lift on your floor which will set off an alarm which will alert the guards. The guards may then either try to put out the fire themselves or will alert the fire extinguishing services as necessary. You may try extinguishing the fire yourself using the fire extinguisher. 

If the fire is not anywhere in front of your house. The fire sprinkler systems will spray water since it will sense the heat and immediately start spraying water everywhere. In case the fire gets too huge then we should use the stairs to get away from any tall structures so that if the base of those structures get weak then they won’t fall and take a lot of lives. We should also have a list of necessary things which we could take before we leave the house so that if the structures falls then we won’t be absolutely helpless. Of course we can rely on insurance but they might not always be useful.

Hope you found this article helpful and nice. You should not only read this article you should use it in case of a fire. Only then will I know that my article is helpful and nicely written.

Editor’s note: The contents of this article are interpretations of the author. Their technical accuracy is not verified by our team. Please do not solely depend on this text for bona-fide information on the topic discussed.