Gun safe question

[PI9]

I was at a local safe shop this week looking at new gun safes, the salesman was talking about needing to store your ammo in the gun safe in case of a house fire. Told me about a fire lately that the firemen would not fight because ammo was going off inside the house.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Any firemen on the forum that can confirm this is an issue?

I always heard never to store powder in the safe but what about ammo?

Tim

 

[sipowicz]

What is the best way to store ammunition in a residence? - Yahoo! Answers

 

[rcnixon]

Ammunition in a fire will burn. The primers will pop and the powder will deflagrate. The cartridge case will travel further than the projectile and a couple of layers of cardboard will stop a flying case. Modern turn-out gear will stop pretty much anything not actually fired through a barrel. This was discussed at some length in an "American Rifleman" article a number of years ago (10 or more). The author was (I believe) a P. E. and a volunteer firefighter.

Keep your ammo in...ammo cans! If it's good enough for the professionals, it's certainly good enough for me. Don't keep ammo in the safe and don't keep loaded firearms in the safe. If it gets hot enough in the safe to cook off ammo, the guns are (or will be) ruined.

Russ

 

[Kanewpadle]

I was at a local safe shop this week looking at new gun safes, the salesman was talking about needing to store your ammo in the gun safe in case of a house fire. Told me about a fire lately that the firemen would not fight because ammo was going off inside the house.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Any firemen on the forum that can confirm this is an issue?

I always heard never to store powder in the safe but what about ammo?

Tim

I knew a guy that found out for himself and put some ammo in the oven.

Happen just like RC Nixon said.

Get a good gun safe. Get one size bigger than you think you need. Put your guns in "gun socks" to protect them.

Store your ammo and power separately but NOT next to your gun safe.

 

[Dave Nash]

I was at a local safe shop this week looking at new gun safes, the salesman was talking about needing to store your ammo in the gun safe in case of a house fire. Told me about a fire lately that the firemen would not fight because ammo was going off inside the house.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Any firemen on the forum that can confirm this is an issue?

I always heard never to store powder in the safe but what about ammo?

Tim

I realize that many participants to this Forum hold SAAMI (the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute) in low esteem and lambast them and others for all kinds of things (often for the lowering of ammunition performance over the years) but they are still "The" standards people for this business (or hobby, or whatever it means to you who are reading this post).

I sincerely hope that those differences can be put aside for not only do they set and/or maintain standards for ammunition, firearms chambers and more but they also are very much involved in things such as fires and ammunition AND, perhaps more important to this discussion, working with fire departments to get the truth out about such matters.

I don't think that I am violating any rules here so this is a link to an older but still very applicable pamphlet on "Facts about Sporting Ammunition Fires" on their site:
http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/publications/download/SAAMI_ITEM_212-Facts_About_Sporting_Ammunition_Fires.pdf
It can be read on line.

And here is a link to their page (you have to scroll your way through it and then click on "Publications" not "Video" and then scroll again on the next screen to "Video or DVD") that contains the descriptions for two DVD's that illustrate similar topics from other perspectives ("Sporting Ammunition and the Firefighter"; "Smokeless Powder and the Fire Service"): http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/index.cfm#4
They are available for purchase.

While I think that from the opening post that started this thread (and that I have included here in mine), that these three items alone could be helpful, this page (also on the SAAMI site) talks about a few related matters and offers up links to a series of readable brochures on the storage of ammunition, powder, and primers: http://www.saami.org/who_we_are/regulatory/index.cfm

Finally, here is page within the same site where you can watch a video relating to "Sporting Ammunition and the Firefighter" http://www.saami.org/videos/sporting_ammunition_and_the_firefighter.cfm

Hope this helps you and the others interested or concerned about this topic for there is obviously a lot of misinformation out there about it.

 

[Beemerguy53]

In 30 years as a career firefighter, I never experienced a fire where a large quantity of ammo was involved, but everything I know about the subject confirms what Russ wrote: The ammo will burst, but bullets will not be flying through the air as if fired from a gun.

(As an aside, I cannot imagine refusing to fight a fire, and basically letting someone's home burn, because ammo is going off in the fire. Personally, I think there is a lot more danger to firefighters from other things stored in homes, such as gasoline, paint thinner, alcohol, acetone, oil-based paints, bleach, and other assorted household chemicals.)

My guns are in a fire-lined safe. I store my ammo in a metal locker several feet away.