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stevie_d_64 wrote: Imagine one of us humming the "Ride of the Valkries" through the amplifier of your SCBA mask...Sounds pretty cool when you do it like that...It was a nice mix of serious and humorous firefighting methodologies...

When I was first a fireman, the SCBA was carried in a compartment and donned by the one or two people designated, and that's pretty much all we carried. Later we acquired more, but it was not put on as a matter of course - excuse me while I cough for a while - thanks - and it was only after I got out, in 1983 that putting on breathing apparatus became as normal as the rest of the gear.

I went through the Citizens' Fire Academy a short while back and boy have things changed.

We also used to ride on the back step to fire, and even in the hose bed.

But, I have 17 years of tales to tell and don't want to bore anyone, even with the ones that are not embellished by memory.

BTW, if we are limited to 500 rounds, then I am in trouble, big. I usually buy in case amounts of 1000 rounds.

stevie_d_64 wrote:I am a member of a local Volunteer Fire Department in my community...

...

Oh well, I guess you had to be there...

Later,
Steve

As a former long time VFD member myself, I sympathize, but I do have to point out that ammo that cooks off by itself in a fire is not very hazardous. For ammo to function as designed it really needs to be confined to a small space, as in a firearm chamber, with one outlet, as in a barrel, and when it goes off unconfined it frequently makes a spectacular noise and fireworks, but it's a "tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Not that it wouldn't scare the bejeepers out of you if you were standing nearby, or even inflict nasty burns and welts.

Remind me to tell you sometime about propane bottles stored in a basement.

And a slightly humerous digression.

One evening, after a rancorous discussion in the bar of our firehouse (!) a bunch of us headed off to the fire training facility to see whether ammo was dangerous or not.

I do have to state up front that our experiment was not really all that scientific, but we found that mostly is was the CASES that were dangerous, when we could actually figure out what happened with the projectile it really hadn't travelled very far. While the projectiles travelled very short distances, some of the rifle cases at least made it far enough to bounce off the walls.

No, we were not in the room, we were outside looking in through heavy plastic shields, we were not that drunk.

We made up our minds to do it again with a little less beer, but it always seemed to be a little less intelligent when considered in the cold sober light of day.

I have written to Mythbusters asking them to give a try at busting the myth, but have never gotten a reply.