Man blows up house reloading

[Bugkiller99]

A Florida man's house blew up, and he stated that he was reloading ammunition and 6 lbs of powder caused it.

Homeowner was reloading ammo when Seffner house exploded, firefighters say

I'm calling BS. Something else blew up the house. I'm leaving it at that.

What do you think?

 

[AJ]

Be interesting to be able to follow what is found on the investigation.

 

[eb07]

I say BS. The powder is not under pressure. It would just burn big.in it's container .

 

[Abflyboy]

6 lbs of powder will NOT blow up a house.

Start a fire, yes, blow up a house, NO.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Well maybe if he was next to a oil or propane heater for the house...........

How much insurance did they have on the house and amount of $$ on bills ?

 

[S&WIowegan]

Before cheap Mexican meth took over the supply in Iowa, Meth cookers would rent farm houses to cook meth. Explosions happened every now and then. We reloaders here know smokeless gun powder doesn't explode, it burns.

 

[luvsmiths]

6 lbs of powder will NOT blow up a house.

Start a fire, yes, blow up a house, NO.

6 pounds of BLACK powder will.

 

[austintexas]

Back in '64 a local gunshop, Shooters Paradise blew up, Killed the owner and blew customers out of the plate glass front windows. The owner was also a gunsmith, He was in the basement checking out a repaired pistol. Fire dept said that he set off a pound of black powder in a paper bag in the basement. What was strange was the local natural gas company was there the next day leveling out the rubble.
SWCA 892

 

[eb07]

6 pounds of BLACK powder will.

Homeowner stated smokeless powder.



I have thrown one lb containers that smelled weird in a bonfire. Big flash and burn off. Never and explosion.

 

[jimmyj]

Perhaps this is a new method to remodeling a house ?

 

[SMSgt]

I wonder if the house had natural gas.

 

[Chuck24]

Don't let my wife see this

 

[ameridaddy]

Meth, black powder or a natural gas leak get my vote
Thinking out loud, could a hot powder fire melt and flash off a natural gas line? Used to be all gas piping was black iron, but are they using plastic now?
In any case, the loader was doing something dumb and/or illegal.

 

[Jon651]

Let's look at the pictures, shall we...

The damage is confined to an area at the back of garage or the room behind it. The resulting damage indicates an explosion but not much (if any) of a resulting fire. This is backed up by the fact there is lots of small debris and a partial collapse of the truss system over the point of origin but the rest of the house remains intact with no smoke staining or sooty runoff. In fact, there is no water or sooty runoff from the fire department down the driveway, where you would expect it to be. Witnesses also say they heard "an explosion".

This was not a natural gas explosion (from a gas leak to a clothes dryer or gas water heater, either of which you would expect in that area of the house). If it was, the damage would be much (MUCH) greater - with possible secondary damage to surrounding structures. The same can be said if it was a meth lab - plus there would be more evidence.

The news reported that investigators already made the determination that it was a result of the reloading activity and the smokeless powder. There is nothing shown that contradicts this conclusion. I would not be surprised if the homeowner/reloader may have had a fan or an AC unit running in his work area that may have stirred up some powder, or possibly tipped over his container by accident. Get enough of it airborne and it WILL explode. Heck, wheat dust will explode. I also wouldn't hesitate to believe that he may have been smoking or was using some electrical equipment that may have generated an open spark.

The most amazing part about what I see is that he is actually using his garage FOR A CAR!

Never underestimate "Florida Man"...

 

[.38SuperMan]

In the mid 70's my (Ex)wife and I were having Sunday lunch when we heard a loud explosion. After lunch we drove up the highway 3 miles in the direction we thought the sound came from. In a subdivision just off the highway police and fire trucks had gathered where a house had been an hour earlier.

The roof of the house was a half block away resting on top of two telephone poles. Insulation and debris littered several blocks and the only identifiable remains of the house were a few concrete blocks where the corners of the foundation were.

The official report was that the owner had been working in the basement with his acetylene torch and touched off 25 pounds of black powder. Apparently the blast from the powder ruptured both the acetylene and oxygen bottles which made things worse.

The event occurred just a short time before a daughters birthday party guests were to arrive. Thankfully the guests hadn't arrived but the two children were killed , the father and family dog. The wife was in the kitchen and was blown through the window int the back yard. I believe she was the only one to survive. The explosion mangled the bodies so badly the authorities thought the family fog was the daughter.

Another similar thing happened to a fellow students home in high school in the mid 60's. Early one Sunday morning the water heater blew up because there was no pop off valve. They weren't required at the time. Anyway the water heater was on the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms where the family was sleeping.

The blast blew the water heater through the roof and was found two houses away. All of the brick on the house was blown off and every window blown out. Fortunately no one was hurt because the explosion wrapped the mattresses around the sleeping members of the family.

 

[luvsmiths]

Homeowner stated smokeless powder.

Oh.... well, as long as the Homeowner stated that it was smokeless powder, than it surely must have been.

 

[Mike in Reedley]

Honey oil extraction gone wrong.

 

[Suburbanite]

HCFR says the man told crews he was reloading "small arms ammunition" inside his home when the explosion happened. He added that there were about six pounds of smokeless powder in the house, as well.

Note that the article does not say that six pounds of smokeless powder exploded.

Six pounds of smokeless powder would have produced quite a bit of fire and, as our expert noted, there are no signs of fire in the damaged house.

Could primers have caused this?

 

[THE PILGRIM]

It was a while back.
My Buddy Milt ( Ret Army Ordnance) was standing out in front of his house BS-ing with a neighbor.
Ka-Boom! House next door blows.
Guy staggers out the front door and collapses on the lawn.
The blast blew out the back wall and moved the entire house forward several inches.
This is a pretty nice neighborhood.
But they were cooking Meth there anyway.
I'm also not buying HandLoading.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

Combine garages & basements, the black (or, smokeless?) powders (in or out of a paper bag?), natural (or, perhaps "unnatural"?) gas dryers & water heaters, acetylene & oxygen bottles, and Meth...

Clearly a recipe for disaster: must be just about time for some new "sensible and reasonable federal regulations" regarding reloading to protect the public...? Perhaps a new federal bureaucracy, the Department of Reloading Insanity should be in the works? Think of all the new jobs that will be "created" and the "countless lives that might be saved"!

What a total Croc! Well, no: in Florida it really should be a 'Gator!

Cheers!