Hasta La Ideas

Red Comet salesman kit, via Collectors Weekly—looks cool, but what does it actually do?

You know how words like ‘ingenious’ and ‘inflammable’ actually mean the same thing as ‘genius’ and ‘flammable,’ respectively? It so happens that the object known as a “fire grenade” has a similarly paradoxical name: it’s a glass vessel containing an extinguishing agent, intended to be thrown at the flames—in the same manner as the projectile weapon—in order to put it out.

Lamps by Valentino Llegada

But before we get into the “more-than-you-ever-cared-to-know” segment of this post, it’s worth mentioning that a couple of strikingly similar blog submissions inspired (or sparked my interest, if you will) my inquest into fire extinguisher history. Southern Florida-based artist Valentino Llegada has taken to upcycling the aluminum canisters into household objects, namely vases and pendant lamps. Seeing as manufacturers and fire departments alike typically recommend replacing them annually, the raw material is essentially an alternative to recycling non-refillable varieties of extinguisher (actual shelf life may be over a decade for dry chemical extinguishers; compressed gas extinguishers may develop slow leaks within a year).

Samuel Bernier‘s project, on the other hand, is a bit more robust: the DIYer extraordinaire recently posted a detailed Instructable for a fire extinguisher floor lamp, which he created with the help of ENSCI students Sarah Khoubbaz and Rim Besbes during a workshop called “Lounge Share.” We’ve seen homages to Achille Castiglioni (namesake of Bernier’s project) before, but this upcycled tribute neatly conflates the iconic forms of an oft-overlooked safety item and an objet d’art.

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