Can a contained bomb be used to put out fire?

Question

Like a hydrogen bomb, to suck out the oxygen?

Answer 1

Uh, you do realize a hydrogen bomb refers to a thermonuclear device, i.e. one that uses nuclear fusion and nuclear fission to approach yields of megatons? You would never use something like that, unless presumably an entire city is burning down and you just want to get rid of it faster.

If you are inadvertantly trying to refer to using hydrogen--i.e. H2--to suck out the oxygen, realize that the formation of water from such a reaction is extremely exothermic, and likely to spread the fire and accelerate the fire. And in case you're thinking that the amount of water formed could help put out the fire, the answer is a definite no, because the formation is way too exothermic (heat generating).

In almost all situations (except for some extremely rare cases, like oil well fires where you might want to collapse something that is bringing the oil and the oxygen together), you NEVER want to burn or explode anything near a fire. You use water to cool things down, foam to block access of oxygen to the burning material, and potentially (in things like forest fires) controlled burns away from the primary fire to deny the primary the ability to spread. You never want to add more fuel to a fire, and hydrogen definitely counts as fuel.

Answer 2

Yes, a bomb can be used to contain and even put out a fire. The trick is to use the right amount of explosion for the situation. Too much and you take out the walls and allow more oxygen into the flames thus making the fire bigger, too little and you just wasted your bomb.

Answer 3

I've seen it done with an oil well fire, but with anything else I'd imagine it would just blow flaming debris everywhere. I'm pretty sure nobody has tried with a hydrogen bomb though

Answer 4

Absolutely not.. the heat created by such a bomb would cause enormous fires even father from the spot where the fire is right at that moment.... and the WIND caused by the bomb would spread far and wide the fires

Answer 5

If you want to see how the oil well fires are put out with this principle, rent the John Wayne movie "Hellfighters". The current methods probably use more robots and different types of explosives now, but the principles will be the same. And it is a pretty good movie also.

Answer 6

Actually it can, although I doubt you would want to use a hydrogen bomb to do it.

Answer 7

well they didnt have hydrogen bombs back in 1906, but it seems that they tried using black powder, dynamite, and even artillery barrages to try and stop the progress of the great san francisco fire! with mixed results. but i guess you try anything if you are desperate enough.