Once the absurdity has sunk in, it begs the question: What’s wrong with a regular fire extinguisher? If your aim is initially off with a conventional fire extinguisher, you can redirect accordingly.
With the Firevase, you get one chance (unless you have more than one) – one contingent on the quality of your bowling arm.
Produced by Samsung subsidiary Cheil Worldwide, the Firevase is effectively a hand grenade for fires. Potassium carbonate is released from the outer chamber when the vase is smashed and the colourless liquid quickly cools and suppresses oxygen. A smaller inner chamber holds water for your flowers.
Perhaps the potassium carbonate spreads wide enough to legislate for a poorly aimed throw?
The aesthetic appeal is obvious, if the sight of a bright red fire extinguisher jars with your interior decor. But fire safety is one discipline with little room for gimmicks. It’s safe to say the Firevase is unlikely to win regulatory approval from sober-minded regulatory bodies any time soon.
A headline-grabbing way to encourage the use of fire extinguishers generally
However, dig a little deeper and it turns out this was a headline-grabbing way to encourage the use of fire extinguishers generally – which is laudable if it worked. And it did.
Dezeen reported that 100,000 Firevases were originally produced as part of a publicity campaign to promote the use of home fire extinguishers in South Korea. Only 58% of households in the country currently own one, according to research by Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, despite a law being passed in 2017 making their installation in homes mandatory.
The proportion of homes equipped with a fire extinguisher rose by 8% after the original campaign and Cheil Worldwide is now producing 200,000 more of the vases. However, it’s unclear what proportion of this rise is accounted for by the Firevases themselves.
More than 10,000 residential fires occur every year in South Korea.
“When a fire breaks out, the effect one single fire extinguisher can have to help kill the fire in its early stage equals that of a whole fire truck,” said Cheil Worldwide. “Even if people do have one, they usually don’t take good care of it. They store it in hard-to-reach places or forget about it completely,” continued the company.
“So with the strategy to equip Koreans that were indifferent to fire safety with fire extinguishers, we created one that was unique so it would increase their desire to have one.”
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance said a survey revealed that 81% of respondents were now more aware of the importance of having a fire extinguisher at home as a result of the campaign, which included the video above and a print ad run in 46 newspapers and magazines.
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Very interesting. This beg the question what is wrong with a REGULAR FLOWER VASE TO REPLACE THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER. I often recommend to grab a pot, bottle or vase containing clean water and throw at any fire source. No potassium clean up. Much quicker. Anyone can do.
By the way: Hand held fire extinguisher grenades are still common in some regions, in fire engines. Dates back to 1700-1800 century. Nowadays those latter grenades also have turned into fixed extinguishing systems for small volumes, aerosol extinguishers.
I stand corrected! Honestly wasn’t aware of that. Can you imagine something like this getting endorsed by the relevant bodies and meeting relevant standards?
As for me: Do not think flower vase will be certified, despite performing well. Aerosol extinguishers are marketed and installed to standards, such as EN 15276 part 1 and 2. Some standards cover “fixed grenades” only, others (Russian at least) cover hand helds.