Firefighters are always looking for better and safer ways to put out fires, and these days some of the things that they come up with are seriously impressive. PyroLance is a new firefighting tool that is all about putting out fires in enclosed or inaccessible spaces.

Now, normally when you open a door, a window or even make a small hole in a wall that has an enclosed fire on the other side, the oxygen rushes in and you get a backdraft. The PyroLance solves this problem. This baby can cut through steel with an ultra-high pressure stream of water and extinguish an enclosed fire through the small hole it creates, and it does this without providing the fire with any more oxygen for fuel. It gets bonus points for looking like an assault rifle.

PyroLance uses less than 20 gallons of water to do its job and takes less than 15 seconds to use. All it took to put this fire out was to make a 3 mm hole in the steel plate from the outside. This is a very impressive tool that is no doubt going to keep many firefighters alive in tough situations.

[via Geekologie]