The Swedish fire academy vid (above) shows something that, although impressive, is really just a gimmicky stunt. The possibility of implementing such a technique at an active fire is very small. Cool to watch, but not all that practical. It’s the type of thing that’s thought up by people with an excess of both time and testosterone, it could be done in competitions and such.
What probably happened in the LA video below is the airbags deployed as they were hitting it with water. In the packing of airbags is often magnesium, and burning Mg + H20=BOOM. Mg fires are difficult to put out; the more you hit it with water, the bigger and more violent it gets. You get explosions on top of explosions. Fortunately for these guys there’s only a small amount of Mg with airbags. I’ve seen things get freaky for a brief moment, but never that extreme. They handled it well, didn’t get rattled, although they may have had to change their underwear when they got back to the station.
– Stephen Sawyer
