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Any thoughts on what went wrong here; how this could have been avoided or mitigated?

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/communit ... y-park.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am glad my wife missed this story!!!

What was the ignition source?

Modern smokeless powder does not catch fire spontaneously. The fire could have been an electrical fire or the infamous "careless disposal of smoking materials," and the ammunition components were just burned like everything else.

- Jim

The article definitely doesn't indicate the fire source was the gunpowder, just that it helped fuel the fire after started. I would suspect electrical of some sort. That is the most common cause these days.

I would suspect that the fire started in one of the vehicles in the garage.
They said casings were found all over the garage so it sounds like loaded rounds cooking off were the "explosions". If there was any black powder or pyrodex involved that could have come off LIKE an explosion to some.

Glad to see the guy point out gun powder is normal. Not someone in media turing it into a case of "guy making bombs" in garage.

Sounded like Fire Marshall Nolen wanted to talk more about his new fire truck than the gunpowder.
The wind had more to do with the extent of damage than the gunpowder did.

2farnorth wrote:I would suspect that the fire started in one of the vehicles in the garage.
They said casings were found all over the garage so it sounds like loaded rounds cooking off were the "explosions". If there was any black powder or pyrodex involved that could have come off LIKE an explosion to some.

I could be wrong, but the military has done extensive testing on rounds "cooking off" and found it to be more Hollywood than reality. Not saying it can't happen or didn't happen though.

I had an uncle in law that was a fireman for 30 plus years. On more than one occasion I remember him saying that loaded ammo or gun powder was no big deal to him. The only thing firearm related that bothered him in a fire was loaded guns. If they cook off you have a real bullet flying around.

Mythbusters did a show on live rounds in a fire, both in a gun and loose in a campfire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfoJAwlUopI
Physics dictates that the casing become the projectiles with the most force, not the bullets.