Question

Why water is unsuitable for extinguishing a fire in an electrical appliances?

Answer 1

Water is a good and commonly used fire extinguisher. But Water by nature is a very good conductor of electricity. When any electrical appliance catch fire it's mostly due to short circuit or heavy loading and current . When we try to extinguish this fire with water we might get a severe electrical shock and may get electrocuted due to conducting nature of water.

It completes circuit between the appliance and the person pouring water.

So, water is unsuitable for extinguishing a fire in an electrical appliance instead we use CO2 gas or sand there.