There are over 30,000 fires in the workplace each year, which are attended by the fire brigade. This can lead to loss of life, injuries, and severe damage to property. As many as 500 of these fires lead to death or injury resulting from misuse or inappropriate use of fire extinguishers. Oh yes, let me repeat that – more people are injured attempting to tackle a fire, than from the actual fire itself – prompting a call for safer and easier to use designs. Well, this could well be it!
Adam Scott, a 21 year old designer from Plymouth, has re-invented the humble fire extinguisher – and morphed it into a sci-fi inspired weapon-lookalike. The design of the (quite frankly fabulous) X Sting Wish is meant to be easier to operate, as it is more intuitive – so if you need to use it, there is no worrying about which way up it goes. You should be able to just grab it and extinguish away.
He has proposed three different models – an H2O, CO2, and powder fire extinguisher version. All would be colour coded, and lightweight (only 4kg for a full water extinguisher). The water extinguisher uses water mist technology which means it uses just 10% of the water that a conventional water fire extinguisher would have on board. This technology separates water into micron-size molecules, like an atomizer. Therefore, a two litre extinguishers could be the equivalent of 20 litres of water in effectiveness. Using mist technology also means that it is non conductive, and so it can be used in more fire types. Hurrah!
The X Sting Wish has a trigger where you thumb goes, and one where you palm goes too, so you have to press both of these at the same time to make it work. It many ways, this extinguisher has the look, feel and design of a gun. A super firearm in more ways than one.
According to Scott, the X Sting Wish makes the user feel confident and safe using it, and this enables the user to spend more time considering how best to tackle the blaze, and make better decisions, and less time working out how to operate the extinguisher.
This genius piece of equipment has propelled Adam Scott to the dizzying heights of being one of the youngest designer-finalists in the INDEX:Award 2009. As he says “I want to be the James Dyson of fire extinguishers.” Best of luck to him, I say.
