Mexican student creates an acoustic fire extinguisher to put out fire in seconds
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A 16-year-old Mexican student invented a device using sound waves to extinguish fires.
Angela Karime Venegas Hernandez, a student at CETIS 78 in Altamira, Mexico, built an acoustic fire extinguisher called "Vortex Tech." The device uses a 12-volt battery, a frequency generator, and a speaker emitting 30 pulses per second. It extinguishes flames in 5-8 seconds by vibrating oxygen away. She tested it over 100 times on wood, flammable liquids, cooking grease, and electronics. It leaves no residue and is non-polluting. The project will be presented at an international fair.
What commenters are saying
Commenters widely note that acoustic fire extinguishing is not a new idea, citing prior work from George Mason University (2015), the US military (2012), DARPA, YouTube demonstrations, MythBusters, and a 2008 paper. Several express skepticism that the media article, which claims "an idea no one else had," is inflating a solid but unoriginal student project. A technical critique explains that sound disrupts the flame's boundary layer but removes little heat, so the fuel can reignite when the sound stops. Some also question whether the technology can scale usefully.