Originally Posted by Ivan the Butcher

When I first started reloading in about 1979, I called the Fire Department's fire prevention hotline to ask "What type fire extinguisher should I have on my loading bench?" The idiot on the phone says I will be blown up and won't need a fire ext. I tell he knows nothing and find someone who does. It takes an hour of transferred calls through the bomb squad until finally a Major (he reloaded shot shells) that was visiting the fire academy heard the question and got on the line ans says, the smokeless powder burns fast and is self oxidizing and house hold extinguishers won't work on the powder but a bucket of water will, then have the stand ABC extinguisher on hand for whatever else might have caught fire. When I ask about the dumb answers I got he said, "Firemen watch too much TV." I talked with a friend of mine that retired from the same department as a Battalion Chief about this about 10 years later. he said he didn't know and maybe (and doubtful) the arson squad might know. So he called the State Fire Marshal's office, and their people didn't know. Talked with a retired Dispatcher from a small town Department, he was/is a reloader he knew and as a test pulled out a cell phone called the captain on duty and posed the same question, got an emedite answer that was correct, and tested a fireman on duty to see if,he could get it right (he did). Some people are not taught to think things through, some are! Ivan