Elephant toothpaste to fight fires?

[Occar]

TL;DR

decomposition reaction (elephant toothpaste) with fire

So i'm doing a project for school with the local firefighters and we have to help save time to rescue people from a fire.

So i had an idea, What if we made a transportable device that could contain the chemicals and stuff to create a decomposition reaction. I wanted to test my theory that elephant toothpaste could stop fire if it was on top of it. Only i'm not able to due to school restrictions. Can anyone explain to me if this would work and how it would work with the stopping of fires and preventing the spreading of poisonous gas?

 

[Borek]

Foams are definitely used in firefighting, but they have to be carefully selected. Think, what is the gas in the elephant toothpaste and how is it related to fire?

 

[Mayhem]

You could then consider reactions which generate other, fire quenching gases and look to foam it.

 

[jrmichler]

Foams are definitely used in firefighting, but they have to be carefully selected. Think, what is the gas in the elephant toothpaste and how is it related to fire?

+100 to this.

Try searching intumescent paint. Drill down a little, read some data sheets, and think about spraying it on a fire. The data sheets recommend applying the paint using airless spray. I have not seen any references to using the liquid paint as a fire stopper, so that would be a good project. This paint is apparently viscous, and the normally recommended airless spray equipment is quite large and expensive. Another possibility is to spray using carbon dioxide as the propellant.

You could try spraying using an engine wash gun. If initial tests look promising, and you need more flow, look into Fox Valve venturi eductors: https://www.foxvalve.com/. I have had good luck with their eductors.

 

[Rive]

Foam based portable extinguishers (for flammable liquids) do exists already.
I guess that confirms at least the idea itself.
So what remains is to pick the right materials.
The classic 'elephant toothpaste' does not fit.

 

[tech99]

There are two elephant toothpaste experiments that I am aware of. I think you mean the one using hydrogen peroxide with potassium iodide. The foam produced contains oxygen, which will re-kindle a glowing splint. I tend to think that the foam would promote rather than extinguish a fire.