Firefighters forced to wait for 100K ammo rounds to explode

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

So where do you store your ammo, hopefully not in a place subject to a fire, poor guy.

Firefighters forced to wait for 1K ammo rounds to explode

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — Firefighters have put out a fire at an office building in New Jersey after waiting for 100,000 rounds of ammunition stored inside to explode.

The fire at the building in Toms River burned for two hours Thursday morning and ignited the ammunition. Toms River police spokesman Officer Ralph Stocco says that the building's owner is a competitive shooter.

Toms River Fire Department District 1 Chief John Gonzalez told the Asbury Park Press ( WATCH: Toms River office fire ignites ammunition ) that the ammunition was popping for about 10 minutes. It took another few hours for the fire to stop smoldering.

No one was in the building at the time of the fire and no one was hurt. It wasn't clear how the fire began.

 

[k0ua]

Ammunition in a fire is no big deal, as long as they are not chambered in a firearm. They just pop and the case and the bullet separate with very little force. They will hardly dent a cardboard box. They present very little hazard. No real hazard to a fireman with a face mask an his normal clothing. Much less than an aerosol can. Now if a round is chambered into a firearm that cooks off, then it is a lethal hazard.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Ammunition in a fire is no big deal, as long as they are not chambered in a firearm. They just pop and the case and the bullet separate with very little force. They will hardly dent a cardboard box. They present very little hazard. No real hazard to a fireman with a face mask an his normal clothing. Much less than an aerosol can. Now if a round is chambered into a firearm that cooks off, then it is a lethal hazard.

Yea I agree BUT the FD waited 2 hours before going in to fight the fire I am sure that resulted in a LOT more damage. Perhaps if you store ammunition at home find out the FD plan for fighting a fire would be?? I was a volunteer FF for 14 years in both city and rural areas and our policy was to wait until the popping stop before going in. That was if we knew they were in the home.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I was in a closet door way on my knees with an 1 1/2 hose fighting a fire behind a knee wall and heard popcorn sound. Just sprayed the floor and it stopped and i went on fighting the fire. Went back the next day and looked, the floor of the closet was covered with boxes of shotgun shells and the top 1/3 was gone out of each box. No damage done, just a lot less shells to shoot come dove season. Ed

 

[topbuilder]

Sporting Ammunition and the Fire Fighter: What Happens When Ammo Burns? - SAAMI - YouTube

Pretty informative on the subject. To summarize, rifle and pistol rounds will not penetrate two layers of 1/2" sheet rock & Poses little risk to firefighters.

 

[prichard]

"It was popping for a while - for a good 10 minutes, there was rounds going off," Gonzalez said.

So why exactly did they wait 2 hours?

 

[Gunny]

Yep, we had a Class C RV catch on fire outside of town a couple of years ago, the local Barney Fife (I was working at the Sheriff's Office at the time, knew him very well, he had a good rep as a dumb*ss) who just happened to be on scene when it pulled off the road with smoke coming out the windows.
He talked to the owner and was told that there was a 50 round box of 22LR underneath the sink of the RV, so Barney shut down one of the busiest highways in the county for 45 minutes and wouldn't even let the fire department work the fire because of the "imminent danger"

End result, a relatively new RV burned down to the frame, about 100 cars held up for the 45 minutes and one of the firefighters told me later that with all the cracking and popping going on as the RV burned, there was no way he could have known which was ammo or just normal burning.

When the RV pulled off the highway into a farmers lane and parked, it was a good 100' from the right of way, but Barney felt like he had to exercise his on scene supreme authority

 

[oldpilgrim]

I know people say that an unchambered round can burn off without problems. I say hooey.

My son was sitting at a camp fire when a 'friend' threw a .22 round into the fire. My son was in the process of lifting a can of coke to his mouth when the round went off and he felt a sting in his finger which was right in front of his eye.

When he looked at his finger, there was a chunk taken out of it and it was bleeding badly. He went to the hospital and had it xrayed and they found pieces of lead embedded in the bone. The bone was nearly cut in half.

If he hadn't had his hand partially covering his face, it's likely the round would have hit him in the eye and with the force it had, probably gone thru the eye into the brain.

So, a big fat "HOOEY" to those that say the rounds are harmless.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I can't imagine a high power FMJ round not being dangerous in a fire.

Where then to store them? In Canada, they must be in a secure location.

 

[topbuilder]

According to the SAAMI test, any location with two layers of sheet rock is good to go. My closet with a layer of sheet rock. OSB and Hardi is "fort knox" for the fire fighter. I would have liked to see what happens in a sealed military ammo can. I would think the expanding gases would bulge the lid for an escape and that's about it. Popcorn.