Ammunition & House Fires. Have no idea if this is true as I received this info second hand. ( Let me say this. I have been through a total house fire with an old girl friend and my next door neighbors house burn to the ground too. No ammo) I was told that if the fire department answers a house fire and suspects the house contains ammunition or hears ammunition going off they back off from fighting the fire. A matter of safety for the fire fighters. Could this be true, I can make suppositions and theories like the rest of you here but really wish to hear from a real firefighter to see if there is any substance to what I was told. Any firefighters out there or retired ones who could answer this question
A friend who lost his house to a fire, had quantities of ammunition, components, and reloaders. He did not experience any fear nor did the firefighters. The firefighters did not express any alarm to the insurance carriers.
Ammo, not in a gun, pops like popcorn. Even large quantities of smokeless powders just burn very energetically. They do not explode. Think about a road flare compared to a bomb, same amount of energy released, but the shorter the time frame, the greater the issue. A five gallon can of gas, or several grill size propane tanks, in a garage, are more of a concern to a fire fighter.
Hollywood special effects often do not mimic real life. If you think about ammo and physics you have a loaded shell with a very heavy lead end and a lighter brass end. When the powder cooks off force is exerted in every direction. In a chamber the bullet is forced down the bore because that is the only open direction. Outside the chamber forces are not contained but you have a very heavy bullet on one direction and a much lighter brass case in the other, so the lead bullet becomes something the brass case pushes against. The bullet remains almost motionless and the brass flies in the other direction, until the gases dissipate, as soon as they lose containment. You get a flare, but no supersonic projectiles going through wall to reek havoc. You do get a pop from the primer as well. If you want to have some fun load a few shells with spent primers and toss them into a fire. You wont get the pop or bang you expect. Now as our President has pointed out, not all bullets and shells are created equally. I shudder to think about the organ, eviscerating, dangers, of all my stored .410 ammo.
Some homeowners policies have limits about how much powder you can have in your house. Also a few state do limit the quanity of powder you can store in your house. Check you local and state regulations and insurance policy.
Some homeowners policies have limits about how much powder you can have in your house. Also a few state do limit the quanity of powder you can store in your house. Check you local and state regulations and insurance policy.
This. Right down to your local FD
Those are the guys that might put the fire out, and the insurance company is the help that might cover my losses. So, I follow their recommendations.
For AAA, in MI, it had a wt and qty limit, and no BP in the house.
Properly trained firefighters are not afraid of ammunition cooking off. As the videos that are linked above show, it's no hazard. Of course black powder is another story but in 41 years of service I never witnessed an incident involving black powder.
I was told about an incident that occurred several months ago where a volunteer fire department in a rural area allowed two houses to burn because of some ammo cooking off. That's unnecessary and a damn shame. Seems an obvious lack of training.
I will tell you that all the spray cans, solvents and cans of gasoline in your garage can make things interesting.
I would still be afraid of being around ammo in a house fire. If you were a fireman, you would wonder if there was any black powder inside. I believe the primers can still come out of the bullets. I threw some blank .22 shells from a blank pistol in a trash fire years ago. One of them exploded and came out of the fire and hit me in my shoulder and cut me. It was strong enough to put out my eye. I understand primers do the same thing. All kinds of weird things happen in a fire. And if you know someone has ammo, you can figure there are loaded guns, too.
I would still be afraid of being around ammo in a house fire. If you were a fireman, you would wonder if there was any black powder inside. I believe the primers can still come out of the bullets. I threw some blank .22 shells from a blank pistol in a trash fire years ago. One of them exploded and came out of the fire and hit me in my shoulder and cut me. It was strong enough to put out my eye. I understand primers do the same thing. All kinds of weird things happen in a fire. And if you know someone has ammo, you can figure there are loaded guns, too.
The firefighting gear provides plenty of protection. There are many ways to get killed fighting a fire and ammo cooking off is way down on the list.
Where there is ammo there may also be a loaded firearm. A friend of mine, a deputy sheriff, was once called to a residence address where an outbuilding was ablaze in the backyard. It had been used by the resident and friends as a place to play cards. Since it was burning so fiercely, and was away from other buildings sufficiently, the fire department, with the owner's permission, had decided to just contain the location and let it burn out. Everyone was standing off at a distance when they heard a Pop!, and my friend was struck in the upper abdomen. An ambulance was called when they realized he had been shot. The surgeon told him afterwards that everyone is born with two major blood vessels alongside each other, the vena cava and the aortic artery. At the location of the bullet wound the two are all but touching. Surgeon then said that when my friend developed in his mother's womb his were separated by a small distance ........ just enough for a bullet to pass between them and not hit either one. He is alive today because of that anomaly in his physical development.
A loaded pistol was found to have been inside the outbuilding when the fire consumed it, and a round cooked off hitting Jay in the abdomen, some distance away.
I would still be afraid of being around ammo in a house fire. If you were a fireman, you would wonder if there was any black powder inside. I believe the primers can still come out of the bullets. I threw some blank .22 shells from a blank pistol in a trash fire years ago. One of them exploded and came out of the fire and hit me in my shoulder and cut me. It was strong enough to put out my eye. I understand primers do the same thing. All kinds of weird things happen in a fire. And if you know someone has ammo, you can figure there are loaded guns, too.
The firefighting gear provides plenty of protection. There are many ways to get killed fighting a fire and ammo cooking off is way down on the list.
I realize that. I was a firefighter. And guns, ammunition, powder, and it's changing composition during a fire, etc. is still something to be aware of. And like you said, black powder is another story. Watch the different videos on youtube. If it's safe in a fire, why do the people run and hide when they throw it in a fire? The one video shows that bullets will penitrate a block of gel sitting next to the fire. It's down on the list of danger, but like you said, it is still on the list. You don't know what is in people's houses now days. Did you ever walk into a building and find a case of unstable dynamite? I did. And if firefighters are in a house and they hear explosions going off, I can't blame them for wanting to leave the house and hitting it with water from the outside. But, thanks for the reply. I really appreciate your opinion.
I just called my fire department and asked about ammunition going off in a fire. He said there are many variables about staying in a house that has ammunition going off. But one thing he did say was that a bullet going off in a fire "COULD DEFINITELY PENETRATE THEIR CLOTHING. 1000%". Unquote. Nuff said. Have a nice day.
Like my local fireman said, "So many variables." And it says, right in Marc Ret's third post that ammunition is safe, "if it IS NOT IN THE CHAMBER OF A FIREARM. 🙄
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/JX2Wzxr.jpg)
Like my local fireman said, "So many variables." And it says, right in Marc Ret's third post that ammunition is safe, "if it IS NOT IN THE CHAMBER OF A FIREARM. 🙄