Are burning small arms dangerous or not? This is not criticism of the firefighters.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...803/NEWS05/808030350

Blaze gets ammo exploding

By Larry Hertz
Poughkeepsie Journal
August 3, 2008

PINE PLAINS - Exploding bullets kept firefighters at bay for about 20 minutes Saturday while a barn burned to the ground in this northern Dutchess County community.

Pine Plains First Assistant Fire Chief Robert Mizgier said the barn on Mount Ross Road was engulfed in flames when he arrived at about noon.

Mizgier said he was walking toward the barn when he heard a series of "pops." He said the owner of the property, Zebulon Taintor, told him he had ammunition stored in the 30-by-30-foot building.

Firefighters kept their distance until the bullets finished exploding, Mizgier said.

"Nobody could go inside until all the ammo popped," he said.

Mizgier said Taintor told him he had been burning refuse in a wood stove inside the barn when the fire spread into the room.

Firefighters from the Milan; Stanford; and Livingston, Columbia County, fire companies assisted Pine Plains at the scene, and Millerton firefighters provided backup help at the Pine Plains firehouse, Mizgier said.

One Milan firefighter was treated for chest pains and two from Pine Plains were treated for heat-related injuries, Mizgier said. None of the injuries was serious, he said.

I can't imagine an exploding round without a barrel to direct the cartridge would do anything other than pop and maybe send some brass shrapnel flying.

I know in my department our concern was not only the rounds cooking off but any black powder or other stuff that might go boom. You wouldn't want to be crawling around in that smoke and have someone's stash of powder or cases of shells go off nearby.

I know a lot of guys up there and they don't store their stuff in fancy/hardened gun safes. Usually kept it in the closet with their boots or in the shed next to the lawmower and bench grinder.

Without a barrel to direct the bullet, you pretty much have a metal piece of popcorn - ammo will not do anything but maybe deform the brass case. I would burn trash bins at my old gun club quite often with live ammo and the pop is all you got ... soon as the the bullet let loose of the case all the energy is released with no harm to anything.

I know from experience that crawling through a room doing either a search or with a nozzle to knock down the fire you could crawl right up to some bad stuff without knowing it (can't see hand in front of face in the smoke).

That stuff could include a box of 100+ shells or a tub of powder. Burning a few rounds in a metal barrel is one thing. Having possibly large amounts burn on an open shelf with your face a few feet away is dangerous.

Zebulon?

I work as a career firefighter in a rural District. Every house fire has guns and ammo in it around here.

Big deal, go in and put the fire out.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Are burning small arms dangerous or not? This is not criticism of the firefighters.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...803/NEWS05/808030350

Blaze gets ammo exploding

By Larry Hertz
Poughkeepsie Journal
August 3, 2008

PINE PLAINS - Exploding bullets kept firefighters at bay for about 20 minutes Saturday...

Firefighters kept their distance until the bullets finished exploding, Mizgier said.

"exploding bullets" heh.

I can't find the article on the web, but SAAMI claims to have done significat testing and determined that ammunition in a does not pose a threat to a firefighter in normal gear. If you're interested, they list a video on the subject for sale on their website.

The video put outby SAAMI is very much an eye opener. It should be required viewing for all fire departments.

I have read before that 5.56 x 45 mm ammo in an open fire could reach a speed as high as 200 ft/sec when it "explodes." Assuming 88 ft/sec = 60 mph, that little 55/62 grain projectile could reach 136 mph. Would probably sting/bruise/penetrate unprotected flesh at the minimum, dependent upon the angle of incidence, and certainly would trash an unprotected eyeball.

I would not personally care to enter a building with ammo "cooking off", but then again . . . I am not a fire fighter trained to do so either.