China Cracks Down On Fire Extinguishers Filled With Flour

China is notorious for knock-off items. Fake Rolex? Sure. Fake Gucci handbag? Why not? Maybe even a fake degree from UCLA?

While such items have become commonplace in the Chinese economy, the world’s most populous nation may have just one-upped itself in a scandal involving fake fire extinguishers.

Yes, according to a recent post in Weird News Asia, officials in the inland metropolis of Chengdu seized close to 10,000 imitation fire extinguishers last month, which were instead filled with basic cooking flour.

Sure, the white puff of smoke, which emerges from the nozzle looks like flame extinguishing chemicals, but in reality it took two entire bottles of the flour bottles to suffocate a relatively small blaze. Probably better to find this out now than when your commercial oven is on fire during a packed evening rush hour.

To see a video of the fake fire extinguishers in action, head over here for some entertaining knockoff ingenuity, and as a bonus, some classic Chinese television.

[Photo credit: samantha celera on Flickr]