Fire Extinguisher Construction
A water extinguisher is like a giant water pistol, but instead of using pressure

Major Parts
from your finger to fire out the water, it uses pressure from a trapped gas.
- A ring or pin on the handle stops the fire extinguisher from being set off by accident. It also acts as a tamper-proof seal: if the ring is broken or missing, you know the extinguisher needs to be checked.
- Inside the sturdy steel case, there’s a canister containing high-pressure gas (orange with blue hashing).
- Most of the extinguisher is filled with water (blue).
- A tube runs right up the inside of the tube to a nozzle outside (gray).
- The nozzle often ends in a piece of bendy plastic so you can easily direct it toward the base of a fire.
- To operate the extinguisher, you pull the ring and press the handle.
- Pressing the handle opens a valve (shown here as a green arrow) that releases the pressurized gas from the canister.
- The gas immediately expands and fills the inside of the extinguisher, pushing the water downward
- As the water is pushed down, it rises up the tube
- A jet of water emerges from the nozzle.