Ver esta publicación en Instagram
A 17-year-old student is making waves with her fire safety innovation. Ángela Karime Hernández Venegas, from Tamaulipas, Mexico, created a fire extinguisher that doesn’t require water or chemicals. Instead, it uses low-frequency sound waves, saving resources while remaining as portable and easy to carry as a regular extinguisher.
Named Vortex Tech, Hernández’s device includes a custom bucket that is also a barrel, a 12-volt battery, a frequency generator, an amplifier, and a speaker. The gadget generates a low frequency of 30 hertz, or 30 sound pulses per second. The speaker then turns the frequency into sound waves, which are thrust toward a small circular opening at the end of the barrel. This generates a phenomenon known as vortex rings, in which a donut-shaped flow causes a slight turbulence in the surrounding air, striking and dissipating the oxygen fueling the flames.
Hernández felt inspired to build Vortex Tech after watching a video from the United States’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which used a 13-foot-long sonic cannon to extinguish a flame using only sound waves. “The main goal was to demonstrate that the physical principle [of vortex rings] could blow out a candle,” she told Spanish newspaper El País. “DARPA’s sonic cannon indicated that the method was feasible.”
Vortex Tech is currently in its fifth prototype, following two months of work and many more weeks of preliminary research. According to Hernández, the current version can now put out small flames from six feet away and has been tested at least a hundred times on fires from candles, wood, flammable liquids, electronic devices, and cooking oil grease.
Hernández recently presented Vortex Tech at the 2026 International Science and Invention Fair (ISIF) in Indonesia, where she won a gold medal and the IYSA Semi Grand Award. “After months of hard work, effort, testing, and dedication, our project made it all the way to Indonesia to demonstrate that Mexican science and innovation have great potential,” Hernández wrote on Instagram. “Winning this gold medal at ISIF means much more than just recognition; it is the result of never giving up, believing in our ideas, and working to make them a reality.”
While her creation is still far from commercial reality, it’s a promising concept that shows the most brilliant minds of tomorrow are already at work. To stay up to date with this project, follow Hernández and Vortex Tech on Instagram.
Ángela Karime Hernández Venegas, from Tamaulipas, Mexico, created a sound-wave-powered fire extinguisher.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Named Vortex Tech, Hernández’s device includes a custom bucket that doubles as a barrel, a 12-volt battery, a frequency generator, an amplifier, and a speaker.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
The current version can now put out small flames from six feet away.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Hernández recently presented Vortex Tech at the 2026 International Science and Invention Fair (ISIF) in Indonesia, where she won a gold medal.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Vortex Tech: Instagram
Sources: ¿Quién es Ángela Karime Venegas, la Estudiante Mexicana que Inventó el Extintor Acústico?;
La estudiante del CETis en Tamaulipas que creó un extintor acústico gana el oro en la Feria Internacional de Ciencia en Indonesia
Related Articles:
Teen Invents Gadget To Help Dementia Patients Like His Grandmother
13-Year-Old Honored in TIME’s First-Ever ‘Girl of the Year’ for Invention Helping Unhoused People
12-Year-Old Invents Affordable Fire Detection System That Sends Alerts to Your Phone
‘Nest Egg’ Reinvents the Piggy Bank for a Cashless Generation
