How does fire extinguish come out of a fire extinguisher without making the fire worse?

Question

From my experience it’s never been a good idea to put any of those compressed air bottles near an open flame, so how would that work for fire extinguishers. Does the extinguish over power the compressed gases, or is it an entirely different kind of mechanism, and if so, how does that work?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Heating a sealed container causes the pressure inside to rise, and thus usually an explosion.

If the stuff in that container is flammable, then you get a *fiery* explosion.

Once out of the container, a non-flammable gas will not explode since its pressure can’t really rise. Fire extinguishers use non-flammable gas as propellant, and depending on the type they often use powder as the main extinguishing ingredient.