Patent Publication Number: US-7896092-B2

Title: Device to extinguish a fire produced in a building

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Spanish Application No. U200500427 filed Feb. 24, 2005 and Spanish Application No. P200500427 filed Feb. 24, 2005. Applicant also claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §365 of PCT/ES2005/000686 filed Dec. 16, 2005. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English. 
     OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention refers to a device to extinguish a fire produced in a building. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     At present, there are important problems at the time of extinguishing a fire in a building, especially if it is of considerable height, since technical means are unable to smother flames at a certain height. 
     In this way, for example, water pressure is insufficient to reach a specific height, facilitating the spread of flames to heights above, turning out to be practically impossible to extinguish the fire, and its structure, generally steel, suffers sufficiently to cause the general collapse of the building. 
     It is well-known that when this circumstance takes place, furniture and files are destroyed, only the skeleton or structure of the building remaining at the mercy of the flames. 
     The problems that this type of fires produce are not only material, but, in general, are accompanied by human losses. 
     To solve these problems, the invented device, easy to embody and also easily transportable to be launched from a helicopter or even with a gun in the missile-shape format, has been designed. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The invented device comprises a preferably spheroid-shaped body, enclosed within which is a space containing an explosive charge with a detonator, which causes the above-mentioned charge, connected by means of electrical wires to an actuator, to explode. 
     The actuators are distributed around the surface of the spheroid body, so that, on any of the actuators hitting a part of the building, the explosion of the body, that constitutes a bomb, is produced. 
     The fireproof material used to extinguish the fire is contained inside the body. 
     As soon as the spheroid-shaped body strikes the building, the explosion is produced and its disintegration or breakup causes fire-retarding material contained within to fall in the area, smothering the flames. 
     Among others, this fire-retarding material may be carbon dioxide. 
     A variation in the embodiment of the invention is when the body has a missile shape, with a timer at the corresponding end of its nosecone or remote control actuator connected to the detonator located at the very opposite area, which activates the explosive charge that breaks the body of the missile containing the fire-retarding material. 
     In this embodiment, due to the shape of the body, it may be launched from a distance and inserted through a small area of the building on fire, for example, through a window, and also has the great advantage of being able to explode with time delay, that is to say, controlled. 
     With the invented device, it is possible to immediately extinguish or considerably reduce the flames of a building on fire. 
     These bombs, when they are missile-shaped, may also be launched from a distance to enable firemen to act at a much greater safety distance. 
     Besides, with this device, floors of the building that are inaccessible to water hoses on being too high, may be reached. 
     In short, with the invented device, whether the bomb is spheroid or missile-shaped, it may be launched either from a helicopter or with a gun from a distance and conveniently and safely hit the corresponding areas of the building and thus easily smother the fire that the building is suffering. 
     The guns may be installed in ground vehicles to accurately launch the bombs and hit the affected zone or zones of the building. 
     These guns, when they are small in size, may be carried by people and used to launch the bombs with the corresponding fire-retarding product. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a lateral view of the bomb that carries the fire-retarding material inside, according to the version. 
         FIG. 2  shows a variation of the bomb in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  shows a missile-shaped bomb according to the invention. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
     Device  1  of the invention used to extinguish the fire produced in a building comprises a bomb with a hollow body  2  that may be of any type of material providing that it meets the characteristics of use for the device itself. 
     The hollow body  2 , which houses the fire-retarding material  3 , may be spherical, in which case,  FIG. 1 , it has actuators  4  on the surface, that, when they hit the surface area of the building, by means of electrical wires  5 , activate a detonator  6  which causes the charge  7  carried inside the hollow body to explode. 
     When the explosion is produced, the fire-retarding component  3  is scattered over the whole surface area of the radius of action. 
     When the bomb has time-delay, it has a timer  8 . 
     The bomb may be missile-shaped,  FIG. 3 , in which case, it has the actuator  4  on the outside of the nosecone  9 , that, when it hits the surface area of the building, by means of the electrical conductor  5 , activates the detonator  6  which causes the explosive charge  7  carried inside the hollow body of the missile, to explode. 
     When the explosion is produced, the fire-retarding component  3  is scattered over the whole surface area of the missile&#39;s radius of action. 
     Having sufficiently described the nature of the invention, as well as the way to embody it in practice, it must be emphasized that the previously indicated layouts, represented in the attached drawings, may be modified in detail as long as they do not alter the fundamental principle.