Ever wonder what a housefire will do to your ammo cache?

[lawrnk]

So I have a few hundred pounds of ammo, and was worried about what would happen if there was a fire. I keep them in a safe now.

Interesting video! Turns out bullets burn more than actually firing.
http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/122 ... nting.html

[Dan20703]

You are worse off keeping them in a safe. Pressure buildup might cause a more violent explosion than if they just burned.

[ELB]

All the examples of loose (i.e. not chambered in a gun) small arms ammo in a house-type fire I know of showed the ammo just burns. May force the bullet out of the case, but not with high velocity. I would not want to be close to it though -- I'll bet you get some spectacular flames. I burned off tiny amounts of contaminated powder that I spilled while reloading, and WOW -- the fireball produced by just a .38 special's worth of powder was impressive.

However, one of the firefighting news websites I peruse did have a story on firefighter shot in the thigh when a round cooked off that was chambered in a handgun that was in a fire.

I would think that ammo that gets hot enough to burn inside of a safe could cause an explosion, or maybe more accurately, violently open the safe, if enough ammo is present, but I know of no actual accounts of this.

elb

[locknload]

My Dad was a fireman, as a collateral duty, before he retired from Celanese. They sent him to Texas A&M to the fire school there. He also was on the volunteer fire dept. in our hometown.

He said that they taught them NEVER, ever, ever, to enter a house when ammo was heard, rumored to be there, or cooking off, as it can/will kill you ... even if there were people inside to rescue. They wouldn't have any idea whether there was a loaded gun or not, but must always assume that there is, especially if rounds are cooking off. If they heard the first blast, they were to leave the house immediately and let it burn. They were even told to stand behind the fire engine, while the house burned and never assume that all of the rounds had fired, if there was a lull in the explosions, because the fire just might not be in the next room, yet, where there might be more.

He came home with a lot of very interesting tid-bits. The one that stuck most in my mind was about bomb threats. They told the men that, if a man calls in a bomb threat to the plant, the blast most likely won't take place until after everyone has had time to evacuate. If a woman calls in, better get a move on, because the blast could occur at any moment. Men sometimes make vacant threats, with no real bomb, but women seldom do. Now, them's words to live by!

[fire128]

Well, I have been a Firefighter in Texas going on 23 yrs. I have been in more structure fires than I can remember and in all that time I have seen one instance of ammo cooking off. I can tell you for a fact that it is not even something I consider before making entrance into a fire, there are a heck of alot of other things that worry me other than ammo. Has it happened? yes. And it will happen again, but I do not worry about it, No. For the most part no one has enough ammo stored in their house to worry me. What worries me is all the stupid chemicals and such they store under their sinks and in their garages. Those items will bite worse than a bunch ammo stored in a house.

[Liberty]

I've been in a couple of structures that were cooking off ammunition. It is unnerving, What typically happens was I was able to very quickly put the fire out where the ammo was things cool off and the danger is fixed. If for some reason the fire doesn't go out real quick. The firefighters aren't going to hang around.

[legend]

Ever watch Mythbusters on Discovery channel? They did a special on this exact thing. I liked the episode...

Here is a quote from their website, and the link...

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode85

An oven door can stop bullets.

busted

The oven door failed to stop .38 caliber rounds, .357 magnum rounds, and shotgun shells. The only exception was that the .22 caliber pistol rounds were unable to pierce the steel part of the oven door.

Bullets can explode with lethal force if they are stored inside a hot oven.

busted

The Mythbusters placed a .22 caliber, .44 caliber, and .50 caliber bullet inside an oven. All of the bullets exploded once the oven was hot enough, but none of them were able to penetrate the oven. Without a gun barrel to contain and direct the propellant gases, the bullets did not develop enough speed to pierce the glass or steel portions of the oven. The shell casings actually caused more damage than the bullets.

A gun can fire a bullet with lethal force if stored inside a hot oven.

confirmed

The Mythbusters placed a loaded .38 caliber revolver inside a hot oven pointing towards the oven door. Once the temperature was high enough, the gun automatically discharged and sent the bullet out of the oven, which could potentially kill anybody who happened to be standing in front of the oven.

Bullets thrown into an open fire can explode with lethal force.

busted

The Mythbusters dropped a box of bullets with varying calibers directly into an open fire. While many of the bullets immediately discharged,, it appeared that none of the bullets could be lethal. Like the oven test, most of the damage was being dealt by the shell casings, which could not travel fast enough to be lethal.

[Liberty]

When the bullets are flying past your head, one still isn't going to feel comfortable about it.
Actually Mythbusters is probably right, although I've been there while they were cooking off, I've never seen any signs of penetration.

[The Annoyed Man]

You are worse off keeping them in a safe. Pressure buildup might cause a more violent explosion than if they just burned.

I would disagree with that statement for three reasons:

1: If you have a fire resistant safe, the temperature inside the safe will likely be lower than outside the safe. For instance, my safe will maintain temperatures of no more than 275º for 45 minutes, with an outside temperature of 1,200º. The ammo is not likely to cook off inside the safe, whereas it is quite likely to cook off outside the safe.

2: Since the pressure inside the safe isn't going to be all that high because it has a lot of cubic feet of airspace, and because the heavy gauge steel walls, lined inside by plywood and foam liner is probably more than capable of containing a round that cooks off.

[locknload]

You are worse off keeping them in a safe. Pressure buildup might cause a more violent explosion than if they just burned.

I would disagree with that statement for three reasons:

1: If you have a fire resistant safe, the temperature inside the safe will likely be lower than outside the safe. For instance, my safe will maintain temperatures of no more than 275º for 45 minutes, with an outside temperature of 1,200º. The ammo is not likely to cook off inside the safe, whereas it is quite likely to cook off outside the safe.

2: Since the pressure inside the safe isn't going to be all that high because it has a lot of cubic feet of airspace, and because the heavy gauge steel walls, lined inside by plywood and foam liner is probably more than capable of containing a round that cooks off.

Someone want to donate their safe to the cause? We can send it to the Mythbusters and find out!

[bps3040]

When I was a young punk (16) I went camping with friends.... We went to some of my buddy's dad's property. We had 22's and shotguns... Well drank a few beers and went to bed. Well, woke up to flames and fire from hell. Turned out, one of my friends, right before he passed out!! decided he wanted a bigger fire. Everyone else was sleeping. Well, a tent was burning....the one with my 22 and shotgun in it. Well, I was the 1st to wake up. Flames shooting skyward and cooking (melting back tail lights and trim work) my brothers car. I kick my brother awake and he moves the car.. Meanwhile I am trying to put out the fire....that is when all the ammo started going off..... We were lucky. No one was hit, but sounded like a war zone a bit.

[jimlongley]

When I was a fireman a bunch of us hunted and shot together recreationally, so the subject naturally came up, and we tried it. Admittedly we didn't use any really scientific process, but none of the rounds we dumped in the fire did much more than dent the plywood we put up around it, and most of those seemed to be from the cases.

[stevie_d_64]

During Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, my local VFD got the call to respond to a house fire in the Green Tee subdivision, since the primary responders could not get anywhere near the address because of the flooding, we got the call and responded to a fully involved "problem"...

Long story short...

We laid ALL of our 5" supply line and tri-gated off of that to our attack lines and managed to keep the fire contained to that one residence...We were up to our chests in flood water with full gear on...Not a good scene...

It was a very large house, multiple stories and within a few minutes of us getting there and starting to do our thing, the ammo the owner had in an upper floor started cooking off...Granted it didn't appear to do anything but make lots of big bang noises, but no "zing" "zip" "zoom" over out heads or smacks into any of the structure...It just cooked off...

So I agree, to me its a low velocity risk, and I sure wouldn't want to be very close to it for obvious reasons...

[lawrnk]

You are worse off keeping them in a safe. Pressure buildup might cause a more violent explosion than if they just burned.

I would disagree with that statement for three reasons:

1: If you have a fire resistant safe, the temperature inside the safe will likely be lower than outside the safe. For instance, my safe will maintain temperatures of no more than 275º for 45 minutes, with an outside temperature of 1,200º. The ammo is not likely to cook off inside the safe, whereas it is quite likely to cook off outside the safe.

2: Since the pressure inside the safe isn't going to be all that high because it has a lot of cubic feet of airspace, and because the heavy gauge steel walls, lined inside by plywood and foam liner is probably more than capable of containing a round that cooks off.

I'm agreeing with this. I think/hope the fire would be out by the time the safe temp got hot enough, and I tend to believe the safe is the safest place for a cache of ammo. It also weighs it down to inhibit being mobile to thieves.

[Liberty]

I'm agreeing with this. I think/hope the fire would be out by the time the safe temp got hot enough, and I tend to believe the safe is the safest place for a cache of ammo. It also weighs it down to inhibit being mobile to thieves.

A refirigerator is also a good place. Especially for a lb or 2 of black powder.