If ever you needed an indication that a car was meant to burn to the ground, it might be this. A bystander approached a raging car fire with an extinguisher. But right before he was able to fight the blaze, he dropped the extinguisher and sent it into the sky. Not a banner day for safety. 

In an attempt to stop a car fire, a bystander pulls out a fire extinguisher– but ends up sending it into the sky

A viral video with nearly 200,000 likes shows an older car parked alongside a curb spewing smoke into the sky. Not a typical case of overheating, mind you. This was a car fire moments away from being fully involved. At the moment, however, the fire was mostly contained to the engine compartment.

As you might expect, a bystander approached with a fire extinguisher, undoubtedly hoping to stop the emergency in its tracks. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. The person appeared to drop the extinguisher, damaging it.

Not only did he damage it, but he also released the contents under pressure with tremendous force. As a result, the extinguisher fired off into the sky, spinning in circles as it did. Needless to say, that extinguisher played no role in quelling the car fire. Hopefully, the fire department fared better. 

Now, fire extinguishers can do a lot. But they can’t, unfortunately, operate themselves safely and effectively. So, what can you do to avoid turning your extinguisher into a skyward missile? While serving as a firefighter, I always told people to handle fire extinguishers with care. Remember that they are under immense pressure. 

That, and use the “PASS” technique to battle a small fire. It stands for “pull, aim, squeeze, sweep.” Pull the safety pin, aim the nozzle at the base of the fire, squeeze the trigger or handle, and sweep back and forth.

Check out the video of the fire extinguisher shooting up into the air below!