Indoor Range Fire/Explosion
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kwselke
Member
That is interesting. The place impressed me as a dirty, dusty, pit before the fire. Although it could be low quality security video.
Hunter8282
US Veteran
Wow! Bunch of un-burned gun powder on the floor? 
ericrlarson
Member
Did anyone survive that?
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
EQGuy
US Veteran
When ever I sweep up in front of the firing line at our indoor range there is always unburned gun powder there. That video shows what happens if you do not regularly sweep up the powder.
There was some liquid that spread out on the floor just before the fire.
Did you notice the lady wearing flip flops for shoes?? Sets right up for the hot brass dance!!
S&WIowegan
US Veteran
This is a perfect example of why I avoid indoor ranges unless I have a compelling need. I have been fragged by lead and jacket material, deafened by short AR 15 firing 223 ammo and watched floor debris being blown downrange. The debris is a combination of gun powder and target debris, quite a combustible mix.
5-Shot
Member
Nosler had a basement range used for testing reloads. A similar event there took out part of their factory several years ago.
Ed
Ed
There was some liquid that spread out on the floor just before the fire.
That's not liquid. That's the fire starting below the floor boards. Looks like some kind of hardwood floor that is above the sub floor. You can see the fire starting between the wooden floor slats.
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Ivan the Butcher
Member
One summer, I was teaching my wife and 4 kids the use of shotguns on moving targets. So we shot 4 to 5 hundred rounds of 20 gauge behind the farmhouse. The next spring the grass grew twice as fast and twice as thick as other grass, it all centered on our firing point! Lots of unburnt powder in every round.
Ivan
Ivan
Glock had a similar range fire in Syrma that resulted in a fatality a few years ago.
The range is hot.
Agreed.
But what about all the internet experts who tell me that large charge of slow burning powder all burns in the case of their .357 Magnum.
How can they all be wrong?
It's the best part of the video. Notice how the fire spreads under the floor boards. The wide gaps in the boards made sweeping the floor totally ineffective and just provided space for large amounts of powder to collect between the boards and subfloor.
LVSteve
Member
CalmerThanYou
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That range looks like a dumpster fire waiting to happen. Everything about it is sketchy at best.
tenntex32
Member
The long-haired blonde gal was wearing sandals. Ouch.
I wonder if her hair survived the incident intact.
Dale
I wonder if her hair survived the incident intact.
Dale
amazingflapjack
US Veteran
No indoor range for me.
Witnessed Range Fire First-hand
I was firing prone with a revolver at an indoor range at the facilities of one of the major handgun manufacturers. The range points had tightly knit commercial carpeting on the floor where unburned powder, invisible to the eye, was slowly accumulating within the rug fibers.
Perhaps no one ever fired prone and the range did not receive enough maintenance. Either the muzzle flash or the flash at the cylinder gap ignited the powder. I got up off the floor and attempted to stamp out the fire but it was a hopeless cause. Worse, it took a minute or two to find a fire extinguisher and by that time, the fire had spread to about four square feet of carpeting.
Lesson learned: no carpeting on indoor range points and frequent vacuuming to remove unburned gunpowder.
I was firing prone with a revolver at an indoor range at the facilities of one of the major handgun manufacturers. The range points had tightly knit commercial carpeting on the floor where unburned powder, invisible to the eye, was slowly accumulating within the rug fibers.
Perhaps no one ever fired prone and the range did not receive enough maintenance. Either the muzzle flash or the flash at the cylinder gap ignited the powder. I got up off the floor and attempted to stamp out the fire but it was a hopeless cause. Worse, it took a minute or two to find a fire extinguisher and by that time, the fire had spread to about four square feet of carpeting.
Lesson learned: no carpeting on indoor range points and frequent vacuuming to remove unburned gunpowder.
I notice the indoor range where I shoot has a concrete floor and I have seen the personnel lightly hosing down the floor before sweeping up the debris. I suppose it makes the job both easier and safer. (Maybe helps counter static electricity?)
It probably also helps keep the dust down. It's not just powder residue but also possibly lead particles, even when the range is restricted to FMJ ammunition. There's also some nasty stuff in some priming compounds.
Watching that video it's pretty obvious that the volume of partially burnt powder that ignited was going to create enough heat to light that old, dry and painted flooring on fire. The walls also appear to be covered in acoustic egg crate foam. It's not only very flammable but also puts off very noxious and toxic smoke. It's another "fail" in their range design.
Unless they had a fairly substantial extinguisher on hand, or a sprinkler system, that range was going to be a total loss, with possibly significant damage to the rest of the building it was in.
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Everything I have read, especially in the NRA's guide to handloading screams BS. I believe it was a fire but certainly not from smokeless powder or the miniscule amount that was built up in the floor. Numerous attemts to set off contained ammunition in a box of 1/4" plywood fail to have the bullet penetrate the box. Are we suppossed to believe that smokeless gunpowder, which requires massive amounts of pressure to cause a burn did this? I doubt that a lb of Black powder could have caused this much destruction. If it was a gas explosion in the same room the deetonation would be much more rapid and less of a fireball. I suspect that it was a gas-air mixture seeping through the floorboards and the length of the fireball was because of the restriction of flow to the ignition site. Ignition appears to be from the shotguns, though I have never seen such a fireball shooting outside. Most of the shooters were wearing vests, I would assume a police range inside a Government building. No idea if it was US or Foreign Agency. In either case there should be some write up about it.
Gun range in Brazil bursts into flames before military agents disappear in a MASSIVE EXPLOSION | Daily Mail Online
UK first report, I suspect more to follow after an investigation.
UK first report, I suspect more to follow after an investigation.
She never bothered to put any eye protection on before they started shooting. She was just interested in taking pics.
I wondered if the shooter on the line in the lower left of the screen ever bothered to put his glasses on either. But I think I see him slip them on and can just see the edge of the frames on the right side in one quick pic before he takes his position.
Bad stuff,,but I think there was more than just unburned powder at work.
Looked like it was something more pushing it along.
But unburned powder will ignite and burn inside the range quite easily.
The Marlin range used to experience a 'Range Fire' about once a week. They used to just let it burn itself out.
Kind of smokey but the exhaust vents took care of it OK.
They actually just kept shooting,,targeting and function firing dispite the fire as long as they could still see the CSTV screens of the targets..
It never got anywhere like that in the video. Instead it was just a low flame maybe 8 to 10" high or so and crawled along the floor of the range in a ever widening ring as it consumed the unburned powder.
With that many rounds being fired all day long, 2 shifts a day, 6 days a week,,it's bound to happen.
Then there was the backstop that didn't stop the 45-70's.
A factory wall and a few cars in the employee parking lot suffered for it.
No one was hit thankfully.
There was some liquid that spread out on the floor just before the fire.
That's fire.
mtgianni said:
Fires like this are well-known to happen in ranges with poor maintenance. Virtually inevitable--if you don't clean up, this is bound to happen given enough time. I actually spend a bit of time talking about it in my Range Safety Officer courses.
Protips:
*Sweep up regularly. There are vacuum cleaners you can buy, but don't use home ones.
*Have a fire extinguisher, but understand it's a tool of last resort.
*If there's a fire, don't screw around, get out.
*Don't use carpet as a range surface. It traps powder like nothing else.
*Have multiple exits.
Even if you do all this, fire is still a major range hazard.
Powder is always flammable, and it always burns with a lot of energy. It simply needs pressure to burn quickly. Every cartridge fired produces a small amount of unburned powder, some poor loads produce more.
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