Explanation To make water a still better extinguisher of fires, gunpowder is sometimes added to it. There is logic in this paradox. Gunpowder burns out quickly, giving off in the process a large quantity of noncombustible gas. This gas envelops the burning object, and combustion process becomes slow. Water acts on the fire in a two-fold way. Firstly, as soon as water comes into contact with the burning object, water turns into steam, in which process it deprives the burning object of much of its heat. After all, to transform boiling water into steam we need five odd times more heat than is required to heat the same amount of cold water to boiling point. So most of the heat of the fire is utilised in converting the water into steam. Secondly, the steam thus produced occupies a space hundreds of times bigger in volume than the water that gives rise to it. The steam envelops the burning object and keeps fresh air away. Without air combustion is impossible. In order to cause water to act still as better extinguisher, gunpowder is sometimes added to it. There is logic in this paradox. Gunpowder burns out quickly, giving off in the process a large quantity of noncombustible gas. This gas increases the envelop volume around the burning object depriving oxygen supply from the atmosphere to the burning object and makes it difficult for the fire to sustain.