Fire Grenade

Ever heard that term, fire grenade?  Don't recall ever hearing it called that myself although we had one in our farm home in MN.  The name sounds militaristic, but it wasn't built for military use. Which is not to say it had no military application.

Fire Grenade

It was a household fire suppression device, about the size of a softball.

In case of fire, you were supposed to lift this thing out of its holder and throw it at the base of the fire.  To my knowledge, it was never used in our home - which is a good thing.  A good thing because there was no reason to use it, yes, but also because its effectiveness was iffy at best.  

"Holy crap, there's a fire in the kitchen!"  All pumped up on adrenaline, you grab the grenade and hurl it at the fire.  "Oops!"  You overshot the fire by a good 5', and it's the only grenade in the house.  Exit stage right.  Call your insurance agent.

"What kind of liquid did it contain?" you ask.  Excellent question!  Above, I hinted about a military application.  You better believe it!  The bulb was filled with carbon tetrachloride, which, when heated, can produce phosgene gas.  Phosgene gas was first used by the Germans in WW I, and caused an estimated 85,000 casualties.

Obviously, the word never got out about the dangerous contents of fire grenades.  Since I can remember having one in the house, it was still hanging there in the 1950s - and probably well beyond that.  Yeah, not having to use it was a good thing indeed.