Fire extinguisher prank sparks charges

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 19, 2026

A 16-year-old Oak Harbor boy is facing criminal charges for spraying a fire extinguisher inside another car, covering two occupants with powder, at a traffic light on May 10, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged the teenager in Island County Superior Court May 13 with reckless endangerment, assault in the fourth degree and malicious mischief in the third degree.

According to a report by an officer with the Oak Harbor police, a girl was driving a car full of friends and stopped at the intersection of Highway 20 and Beeksma Drive. The windows of the car were down.

Another car pulled up next to them and they recognized the driver. A kid on an electric bike rode between the cars and one of the girls yelled at him to do a wheelie. Without warning, the teenager who was driving the other car pulled out a fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the girl’s car, the report states.

The fire extinguisher spray struck the girl and her passenger in the face and covered them both with white powder. The driver couldn’t see and had to wait a few minutes before being able to pull over.

One of the girls reported getting a lot of powder in her mouth while the other said it went up her nose. Both declined medical treatment.

One of the girls told police that the suspect and his friend group had been bothering them recently, but she wasn’t sure why. While they were talking to police, the boy called one of them and told her not to press charges. In addition, she said random people also called her and said they were upset that she was pressing charges.

The boy’s mom said she noticed he had a fire extinguisher in his room earlier, and she thought it was weird, the officer’s report states.

If convicted of the charge against him, the teenager could face zero to 30 days of confinement under the standard sentencing range.