Ammo in garage explodes during Keizer fire

[Asp]

<broken link removed>

KEIZER, Ore. -- Crews responding to a Keizer house fire faced an additional hazard as the heat set off several rounds of ammunition in the garage.
A family of eight was able to escape their house early Monday, but they were left homeless by the two-alarm fire.
The homeowners smelled smoke and discovered the fire just as smoke detectors went off. They called 911 and dispatchers told them to evacuate immediately, according to Keizer Fire Chief Jeff Cowan.

I'm not really sure where the ammo was stored, but would firefighters have had a better chance to save the house if it wasn't cooking off rounds?

Read More

 

[Mark W.]

well dramatic headlines aside "heat set off several rounds of ammunition" the way I was taught to count several would be any where from 4-5 to a box of hunting ammo. I would assume in an aweful lot of home fires some ammo is set off. Its my understanding that it is almost impossible to get a non chambered round of ammo to "explode" Especially since Smokeless gun powder doesn't explode. It burns rapidly

 

[Garg]

Sounds like a job for Myth Busters!!

 

[coyote223]

They sure it was "several rounds of ammo?" Not several cans of paint and WD-40,,,,


Who only stores "several rounds of ammo" anyway? One box of .22LR has more than several rounds,,,

 

[darkminstrel]

I'm betting that it's standard policy to let it burn if there is confirmed account of ammo/powder in the house.

 

[Sabertooth]

Rattle cans, WD 40 and loaded ammo sound very close to the same in a house fire. Cans of powder sound different. Cans of black powder go boom as do propane bottles. If a Fire fighter heres a boom it is a signal to hall but away from the house and let it burn. Why? No one but the home owner knows how much powder is in the house. 5 pounds of black powder going off in a house fire is really loud. Will blow the garage off your house at the same time. Smokeless powder acts like a accerant (gas) and really gets things going.
Been there done that.
Retired Fireman.

 

[Mikej]

Sounds like a job for Myth Busters!!

They did. They were using some kind of riflle round, I want to say .30-06. They were hard pressed to get any damage done though. They concluded that the brass shrapnel was the only thing that went flying any distance and that wasn't much even.

Makes sense to me.

Smj

 

[PhysicsGuy]

Mythbusters did it with all different cartridges up to .50 bmg. Using basic physics shows that the brass case will be the part that goes anywhere, and without a chamber to confine it, it really lacks any significant kinetic energy. You can possibly be injured by it if you were close enough, but nothing in the realm of fatal.

 

[darkminstrel]

Yeah, but that was one round at a time. If you put fire to even one lone box of say .38 you're going to get shrapnel flying around in a nice little cloud of molten brass. I'd say that's above my pay grade.

 

[deadeye]

Yeah, but that was one round at a time. If you put fire to even one lone box of say .38 you're going to get shrapnel flying around in a nice little cloud of molten brass. I'd say that's above my pay grade.

If they all went off at the same time which would be unlikely.

 

[rufus]

My very first job out of high school was "shop flunky" at a fabrication shop in beautiful Santa Fe Springs California, near Los Angeles. Think dirty industrial Los Angeles, only dirtier. The shop was right next to an oil refinery. The company made large stainless-steel pipe fittings for things like nuclear plants, ships, and rocket fuel lines.

The job paid very well. It involved a lot of pickups and deliveries of various parts and materials, so I drove around the nastier parts of LA quite a bit. The company pick-up trucks were old Fords with pipe racks and bald tires, real beaters. The shop was a large steel building with two open sides. Everything was very dirty, lots of welding machines and other equipment. There was an old .22 rifle kept in the shop for pigeon and rat control, mostly pigeons.

Some of the guys in the shop liked to play practical jokes. I was the new guy in the shop, so I was pranked quote a bit (at least at first, as they soon learned I liked my revenge). It was all in good fun.

So there I go on another parts run across town in a beater pick-up one afternoon. While sitting at a light, a LA County Sheriff patrol car pulls up next to me to my right. Next thing I know the sound of gunfire starts up AND IT'S COMING FROM MY TRUCK! The Sheriff deputy looks at me with great concern, the look on my face must have been priceless.

The light turns green, I immediately pull over to the side of the road to see what the heck was going on, and the patrol car pulls in behind me. I get out and am looking at the truck. By then the gunfire sounds had almost stopped, just one or two more a few seconds apart, but I could tell it was coming from under the hood.

After everything calmed down I popped open the hood, the deputy right behind me. Sure enough, another joke. Someone had put a hand full of .22LR cartridges on the intake manifold. Ha ha. It took several blocks of driving before the engine got hot enough to cook 'em off, but as my luck would have it the law was now involved.

The deputy got a good laugh, said it scared the heck out of him and he did not know what to think. So he did what he knew, gave me a ticket for bald tires.

What's the point here? The cooked-off .22 rounds caused no harm to the hood of the truck or anything else. They just went "pop" without much else. They were loud though. Don't try this at home.

Edited to add: I should follow up this story with the revenge part. The keeper of the .22 ammo, hence the prankster, drove the forklift. It too was a real beater, with exposed springs in the seat. A wire was run from the coil to the steel seat frame, making for a shocking start-up experience.

 

[VW_Factor]

Sounds like a job for Myth Busters!!

Already been done.