do fire extingushers actually explode?

[35yeros]

do fire extungusher (lets call them fe's since i have no freecking clue how to spell them) actually explode? as some of you may know in live free or die hard the guy shoots a fire extingusher to blow it up, i am wondering if this is actually true or just hollywood.

i will try this and post the video soon.

[Therick]

its true, but you can just do it with any bullet, you got the shoot a bullet (which i cant remember the name of) which turns red hot after you shoot it (tho you got to be at some distance, else the bullet wont have time to heat up. It heats up by it flying throu air at really high speeds), and its blows a hole in the thingy and ignites the thingies inside the other thingy which you take out fires with, and it goes boom

[Shiro]

Huh any pressurized container could explode. Just no fire with the explosion just alot of gas and foam escaping the fire extinguisher very quickly. and Therick, i don't think the stuff inside a FE is ignitable, it would kind of go against what it was made for :S but if i'm wrong i am, can never be 100% sure on things . I just can't see it being very logical hehe.

[Therick]

it whould be quite ironic that a thing that put of fire goes up in flame whould blow up

nop, but i think its true, if you shoot at it with say a .50 it just blow up in a gigantic cloud of white, but if you shoot this fire bullet thingy you get like an exploition of fire.

Its sumthing that when its in the tank it have a kind of exploding kinda ability (if you can call it that ), but when its releast the ability fades.

[35yeros]

the bullet your refering to is a french-made saber round, they heat up to 650 celcus (really hot) there for anti armor. i stil have yet to try it

[Poosc]

lol 35yeros please try it

[Kalbintion]

it is possible - however the contents ARE NOT FLAMMABLE even at 650C i doubt [prove me otherwise] that the fire extinguisher would catch flame when the bullet pierces the container...after all the fire extinguisher is to put out flames -- flames can become MORE THAN 650C depending on the content, yet it can still put it out without catching on fire.....so it wont be in flames, the canister may catch fire just a minor bit when the bullet goes through due to the metal melting...but that should be about it

[Dougle101]

CO2 Extinguishers should explode, and the reason they get rid of fire is cos it drowns out the Oxygen with Carbon Dioxide in its place, killing the flame... I believe that they actually just put Carbon in them then when it releases, the air combines with the carbon for the Carbon Dioxide, Considering that Oxygen Particles travel in pairs... Anyway, that would be the only reason i could see an Extinguisher exploding