The distance that pepper spray and human spray will go is a function of the size of the canister. People spray is shorter because the cans sre tiny and you wouldn’t lug a fire extinguisher sized container of bear spray in your purse ir pocket.
I just now thought of something: when they said he got hit by a fire extinguisher I thought they used it to bludgeon him. That would make the most sense if you wanted to hurt someone. Later they said that wasn’t what happened. But maybe someone saw him being sprayed with a big can of bear spray which could possibly be mistaken for a fire extinguisher. Then they would say he was hit by a fire extinguisher. Someone bringing bear spray instead of people spray probably had bad intentions.
There is a brand of bear pepper spray called Counter Assault that looks very much like a fire extinguisher in the 10.5 ounce size.