Terrorism

Fire Extinguisher cannisters have been used as bombs more often than we would like to think.  In Thailand, a country that has been hit hard by violence since 2004, there have over 250 occurences of fire extinguisher being used as improvised explosive devices according to Thailand's Bomb Data Center.

The Bangkok Post Reports:

According to the BDC, there have been 1,987 bomb attacks since the re-emergence of violence in the South in 2004.

All the bombs were homemade.

Pol Maj Gen Saritchai said 674 of those bombs were found to be assembled in metal boxes, 253 were in fire extinguisher canisters, 169 were in metal water pipes, 95 were in plastic water pipes and 65 were in cooking gas canisters.

This video provides insight into just how powerful even a small bomb inside a fire extinguisher can be.  Imagine a 50 pound commercial extinguisher exploding in a crowded area.

Fire Extinguisher Bombs are a real and proven threat that is growing around the world, even here in the United States.  In order to ensure that fire extinguishers are not tampered with and that they do not fall into the hands of terrorists, fire extinguishers must be monitored 24 / 7 / 365 with an electronic fire extinguisher monitoring system.

The last thing we want to wake up to is a story of a fire extinguisher bomb going off in a crowded train station, airport or stadium.

After a "suspicious" passenger left the lavatory of the plane, an alert flight attendant noticed a fire extinguisher was out of place and notified the pilots. The plane was diverted as a safety measure.

Fire extinguishers have been used as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) so this flight attendant was wise to call attention to it.

One way to immediately know if your extinguishers have been removed, depressurized or blocked is to monitor them with en-Gauge.

A man with a history of creating pipe bombs is suspected of leaving another bomb -- this time in a fire extinguisher -- in his car.

The car had been in the police impound lot before being picked up by family. There's a question whether the car had been searched by police before being released.

It's easy to overlook what appears to be a safety device but in reality has been transformed into a dangerous and life-threatening weapon. That's why many facilities have chosen to electronically monitor their fire extinguishers so they know where they are 24/7.

Whether real or a hoax, sadly this isn't the first time students have used a fire extinguisher as an IED (improvised explosive device).

Taking a common, "friendly" item, such as a fire extinguisher, and turning it into a dangerous weapon is becoming more and more prevalent. No one suspects a safety device would be used for anything other than safety; so it creates a great way to hide something very dangerous in plain site.

The US Army showed off it's big acronyms today with the anouncement of RMCS developed by CERDEC's S&TDC division. Big names aside,  this is very cool stuff, makes us wonder how this will work with NIST's IBR program.

Bangkok - Fire extinguishers have become the latest lethal weapon in the militants’ arsenal in Thailand’s troubled deep South. On May 9, a mobile phone was used to detonate a fire extinguisher bomb exploded in Narathiwat, the ninth such device to be used there in recent weeks.