Gizmodo Australia » fire extinguisher

Kitchen Oil Fires Have Pretty, Weird Solution: Flower Fire Exinguishers

Kit Eaton — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:33:00 +0000

Fire extinguishers are damn handy, but hard to get excited about—unless they’re cool flying ones—but these flower extinguishers from Japan should be weird enough to pique your interest. They’re magnetic, so you just whack them on a convenient surface, like the front of your fridge. And if you’re unlucky enough to get an oil fire on your cooking range, then you simply grab the flowers and fling them into the fire. You’re probably thinking “Fighting fire with flowers? WTF?” right now. The flowers work by melting to create a film over the surface of the burning oil, cutting off its air supply and extinguishing the fire. See the video of them in action if you don’t believe it.

Neat hey? If not a little bizarre. They come in yellow or pink, disguised to look like silk flowers, last 2 years before you have to replace them (assuming you don’t set fire to your kitchen in that interval) and are available for US$39 for two. [Kilian-Nakamura via Random Good Stuff]

World’s Largest Fire Extinguisher Stands in for Fireworks, Does a July 4th Flyby

Adam Frucci — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:15:00 +0000

No, this is not a Photoshop. It was taken on the 4th of July by Spencer Weiner of the LA Times, showing a firefighting airtanker dropping state-of-the-art fire retardant on wildfires in southern California.

The retardant it’s dropping consists of ammonium sulfate or ammonium polyphosphate with attapulgite clay thickener or diammonium phosphate with a guar gum derivative thickener, coloured with ferric oxide to mark where it’s been dispersed. Not only is it non-toxic, but after the fire is out it’ll act as a fertilizer to promote new growth. Be thankful one doesn’t have to buzz by your house, and be sure to visit The Big Picture for a lot more incredible photos from the recent CA wildfires. [The Big Picture; Wikipedia]

Giant Robot Ready To Stop Giant Fires, Giantly

Mark Wilson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:49:00 +0000

Sure, it’s only a model of a dual-saw-wielding giant robot, but we can’t help but to admire one man’s vision of an autonomous future of fighting forest fires. The Forest Fire “Clear Cut” Robot (model) has 600 parts and took its creator 6 months to complete. What it represents is a tool prepared to slice and dice trees as necessary to stop the spread of flames in fictional, wilderness settings. Because remember, only you (and gigantic, badass robots with blades bigger than your body) can prevent forest fires. But it’s mostly on the robots at this point, honestly. Here’s a bonus pic:

[designer via bbgadgets]

Capsule Fire Extinguisher Concept Arms You With Flame-Tamping Grenades

Gizmodo US Edition — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:50:29 +0000

This rugged fire-extinguisher concept contains both an oxygen supply to help you breathe and exploding powder pellets that you roll, grenade-like, into a fire to put it out at a distance. We’re slightly worried at the idea of having an oxygen tank near lots of flames, but hey ho, it’s great that designer Woo Seok Park is looking at improving the humble extinguisher with this Capsule concept. Our imagination now has us racing to tackle that burning building with McClane-like shouts of “Yippeekay-ay, Motherf…” Well, you know the rest. [Yanko designs]