How do you extinguish a fire with explosives?

Always sounded strange to me too when I first heard about it.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well_fire







Oil well fires are more difficult to extinguish than regular fires due to the enormous fuel supply for the fire. In fighting a fire at a wellhead, typically high explosives, such as dynamite, are used to create a shockwave that pushes the burning fuel and local atmospheric oxygen away from the well. (This is a similar principle to blowing out a candle.) The flame is removed and the fuel can continue to spill out without catching on fire.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

[deleted]

they do use explosions in oil fire's and i'd imagine it's simply smothering the fire with dislodged earth caused by the explosion, plus sealing it will cut off the oxygen supply. Simply a big fire bucket of sand.

[deleted]

Red Adair

Think of it this way, it's like blowing on a candle, but instead of a few ounces of force, your blowing on it with a tens of thousands of pounds of force.

Didn't you fools watch MacGyver? There was a good episode about it

The explosion displaces the jet of flamible substance away from the flame,and explosively sucks oxygen out of the surrounding area
http://www.jwco.com/technical-litterature/p09.htm