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Ammunition & House Fires. Have no idea if this is true as I received this info second hand. ( Let me say this. I have been through a total house fire with an old girl friend and my next door neighbors house burn to the ground too. No ammo) I was told that if the fire department answers a house fire and suspects the house contains ammunition or hears ammunition going off they back off from fighting the fire. A matter of safety for the fire fighters.
Could this be true, I can make suppositions and theories like the rest of you here but really wish to hear from a real firefighter to see if there is any substance to what I was told. Any firefighters out there or retired ones who could answer this question

John
Arrieta[b][/b]

A friend who lost his house to a fire, had quantities of ammunition, components, and reloaders. He did not experience any fear nor did the firefighters. The firefighters did not express any alarm to the insurance carriers.

Thanks marc, great info. I was wondering if there was any truth to that. All clear now


John
Arrieta
Quality Arms

Ammo, not in a gun, pops like popcorn. Even large quantities of smokeless powders just burn very energetically. They do not explode. Think about a road flare compared to a bomb, same amount of energy released, but the shorter the time frame, the greater the issue. A five gallon can of gas, or several grill size propane tanks, in a garage, are more of a concern to a fire fighter.

Hollywood special effects often do not mimic real life. If you think about ammo and physics you have a loaded shell with a very heavy lead end and a lighter brass end. When the powder cooks off force is exerted in every direction. In a chamber the bullet is forced down the bore because that is the only open direction. Outside the chamber forces are not contained but you have a very heavy bullet on one direction and a much lighter brass case in the other, so the lead bullet becomes something the brass case pushes against. The bullet remains almost motionless and the brass flies in the other direction, until the gases dissipate, as soon as they lose containment. You get a flare, but no supersonic projectiles going through wall to reek havoc. You do get a pop from the primer as well. If you want to have some fun load a few shells with spent primers and toss them into a fire. You wont get the pop or bang you expect. Now as our President has pointed out, not all bullets and shells are created equally. I shudder to think about the organ, eviscerating, dangers, of all my stored .410 ammo.

Some homeowners policies have limits about how much powder you can have in your house. Also a few state do limit the quanity of powder you can store in your house. Check you local and state regulations and insurance policy.

What Happens When Ammo Burns? Sporting Ammunition and the Fire Fighter | SAAMI.org:

This.
Right down to your local FD

Those are the guys that might put the fire out, and the insurance company is the help that might cover my losses. So, I follow their recommendations.

For AAA, in MI, it had a wt and qty limit, and no BP in the house.

It is kind of sad to see all that ammo destroyed.

And incase anyone wants to know if these answers are the same for large quantities of black powder cartridges: https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/large-quantities-of-black-powder-ammunition-in-fire/28099

Properly trained firefighters are not afraid of ammunition cooking off. As the videos that are linked above show, it's no hazard. Of course black powder is another story but in 41 years of service I never witnessed an incident involving black powder.

I was told about an incident that occurred several months ago where a volunteer fire department in a rural area allowed two houses to burn because of some ammo cooking off. That's unnecessary and a damn shame. Seems an obvious lack of training.

I will tell you that all the spray cans, solvents and cans of gasoline in your garage can make things interesting.