https://www.wcax.com/content/n...burne-home-barn.html

Starting at :39 in the video you can hear the ammo popping off. 30-40 feet seems long for small arms, maybe some of our first responders can comment.

Fire destroys Shelburne home, barn

By Cat Viglienzoni | Posted: Tue 4:48 PM, Jan 08, 2019 | Updated: Tue 6:43 PM, Jan 08, 2019

SHELBURNE, Vt. (WCAX) A fire in Shelburne Tuesday sent smoke and flames shooting into the sky. The plume of smoke was visible for miles over the treetops.


A home and barn were destroyed but, thankfully, no one was hurt.

Shelburne Deputy Fire Chief John Goodrich said crews were called just after noon to 2100 Harbor Road, and when they got to the residence, they saw heavy black smoke.

As crews battled the flames, they started hearing the sound of ammunition popping. Goodrich says those were in a large stockpile of various sizes and exploded when heated.

"We have no idea what was in the barn or in the building. I do know that all the little pops were ammunition and some of those shell casings were flying 30-40 feet from the building," Goodrich said.

Multiple departments spent hours knocking the fire down.

Goodrich said no one was home at the time and no pets were there either.

Firefighters were still working there late Tuesday afternoon and they expected the cleanup to take hours.

The property is quite large and the actual fire was about half a mile or so from the road. That means firefighters had to run some 3,800 feet of water line up to fight the fire. Goodrich said he's only ever seen them run a line farther once before. And that was actually to another fire he says was on this same property two years ago.

He said at one point during Tuesday's fire they pulled back because there was a danger to firefighters due to lack of water.

No word yet on what caused the fire. But Goodrich said nothing seems suspicious at this time.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
30-40 feet seems long for small arms,

Probably not an exaggeration, but this is an excellent video about the dangers posed by detonating small arms ammunition. The fire part starts about 13:00.

The turnout gear and mask any FF wears on the scene of a fire is more than enough protection from burning small arms ammo as the vid Sigfreund posted shows clearly.
(The grenade manufacturing facility fire was much more exciting!)

Quote: during Tuesday's fire they pulled back because there was a danger to firefighters due to lack of water.
^^This^^ is WAY more dangerous to FFs.
Ammo? Pffft, who cares. Put out the fire and as always, the danger goes away.

The video linked by sigfreund is an excellent source of information. I'd just like to add that the cases flying 30 feet, while possible, is still not really dangerous. When a cartridge "pops off" due to heat, the bullet and the case fly apart, but the bullet has more mass, so it moves less, and the lighter case flys away, but not at high velocity. If there is a gun with a round in the chamber, then that would pose a real risk.

Watch the video to learn all you need to know.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

Probably not an exaggeration, but this is an excellent video about the dangers posed by detonating small arms ammunition. The fire part starts about 13:00.

Great video.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

Probably not an exaggeration, but this is an excellent video about the dangers posed by detonating small arms ammunition. The fire part starts about 13:00.

Great video.

Ahhhh....Jiffy Pop!

4000 feet of water line? WTF? Who has that much hose? How many hours does it take to run that much line? And the second fire in 2 years? And the homeowner was “conveniently” not there? Insurance fraud.

It’s been enough decades I think I’m O.K. now. As a kid in the remote woods we would occasionally throw some rounds in the fire, mostly 22 I think.

It really didn’t fly far, as we hid behind a tree.

A few years back I was helping teach a handgun class on our outdoor range. After the class was finished, we loaded all the used targets and garbage in the open wood stove and lit it on fire. As it was rather cold out, we were standing around the wood stove when there was a loud pop and one of the guys went "ow". Turns out that there was a loaded 38 Special round in the garbage and it cooked off. The case hit my friend in the leg about 3 feet from the stove. It left a small welt on his leg, but that was about it....

quote:

4000 feet of water line? WTF? Who has that much hose?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiNfICuBUrI

Depends on your demographics. Picking it up is a different story.

My first response would be to call BS but the firefighters do say they saw shell casings.

Some of the older constructed houses use nails to secure the siding. When heated, they pop and sound like shots fired.

We used to chuck rounds into the burn barrel at the range only because the rounds had been found on the ground and left in the weather for who knows how long. They were all pistol rounds and were contained inside the burn barrel.

I'm guessing the rounds going off in the video were rifle rounds.