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What's likely to happen with a large quantity of ammo in a house fire? I have read a lot of different opinions and the only two things that seem consistent are 1) that rounds loose or in an ammo can are not dangerous to firefighters, and 2) rounds chambered in a gun are potentially dangerous in a house fire. I don't have any chambered rounds inside my home. I have a variety of ammo stored in my home - some of it's boxed ammo stored in 40MM steel ammo cans, a few thousand rounds of ammo is stored loose inside some smaller ammo cans, some ammo is in the commie "spam" cans, and some of the ammo is on a shelf in the original cardboard boxes - 22LR, 9mm, 45 caliber, 7.62x39, and a small quantity of 30.06 and 7.62x25.

I think anyone responding to a fire at my house needs to be advised, but they should be OK - right?

Thanks !

Many years ago I lived in a "trailer park" outside of Manhattan, KS (was assigned to Ft Riley).
It was a circular park and in the middle was an old WWII Quonset hut that was used for storage of maintenance equipment.
Nobody knew (except for the owner, I guess) that it had a LARGE supply of old military ammo stored inside.
One night the hut caught on fire...and the cookoff's made it VERY dangerous. The fire department was on their PA systems telling the residents to stay in their homes and get on the floor. You could hear the rounds cooking off and being in a tin trailer house was not a very reassuring thing.
The next day some of the closer homes had bullet holes in them.
I agree with you about letting the fire department know (don't know how to do it) if you have a large supply of ammo on hand, or reloading powder.
Just my $.02....YMMV.
<MP(Ret)>

This is what happens when we let "just anybody" have a hoard of war ammo. There is no reason to keep a hoard of war ammo at home where it is dangerous to neighbors and first responders. You can only have three shells in your gun for duck hunting, so why should you have hundreds and thousands of bullets at home. It should be stored in a licensed explosive bunker, with access only by the registered ammo owner to retrieve a reasonable amount of ammunition for a legitimate purpose (target shooting at a range, hunting in season only, etc.).

It should be stored in a licensed explosive bunker, with access only by the registered ammo owner to retrieve a reasonable amount of ammunition for a legitimate purpose

- I'll locate a facility ASAP - you are obviously far more knowledgeable than I am, so would you be willing to monitor my ammo usage, and in your ultimate wisdom, decide how much ammo I should be able to retrieve at a time, and whether my lowly self is even worthy of handling my ammo allotment?? I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me, and I am humbled that you've decided I'm worthy of your attention.

Pop, pop, Pop, POP, Pop, pop, POP, POP, BOOOOMMM!

In 1999, my apartment burned. At that time, I only had a few thousand rounds, stored in military ammo cans. It cooked off. POP POP POP

ScottDLS wrote:This is what happens when we let "just anybody" have a hoard of war ammo. There is no reason to keep a hoard of war ammo at home where it is dangerous to neighbors and first responders. You can only have three shells in your gun for duck hunting, so why should you have hundreds and thousands of bullets at home. It should be stored in a licensed explosive bunker, with access only by the registered ammo owner to retrieve a reasonable amount of ammunition for a legitimate purpose (target shooting at a range, hunting in season only, etc.).

You can bring it to my house.

As a retired fire lieutenant I will say small arms ammunition will cook off, I have been in several burning houses with ammo popping off, the worst thing to happen was finding small pieces of brass stuck in my bunker coat, trust me on this there are far more dangerous things in a burning house than a case of ammo!

Ding, ding, ding - WE HAVE A WINNER !!

Thanks for your service Lieutenant, and thanks for taking time to provide your input, based on your real-life experience.

Mythbusters tested this on one of their episodes as well. They used handgun rounds, rifle round, shot shells, and even .50 BMG. They found that loose rounds can cause injury, but not likely to be lethal. Rounds chambered in a firearm that cook off however, are every bit as lethal would be normally depending on if it hit someone of course.

I have also fought house fire with ammo burning in it. The popping wasn't even impressive. It was all contained with a drywalled closet.

I would not be concerned with loose rounds. However, does anyone know how a round would react when left in a chamber? As a side note, the local Fire Chief will not allow any men inside a building cooking off ammo. He will allow the building to burn.

ScottDLS wrote:This is what happens when we let "just anybody" have a hoard of war ammo. There is no reason to keep a hoard of war ammo at home where it is dangerous to neighbors and first responders. You can only have three shells in your gun for duck hunting, so why should you have hundreds and thousands of bullets at home. It should be stored in a licensed explosive bunker, with access only by the registered ammo owner to retrieve a reasonable amount of ammunition for a legitimate purpose (target shooting at a range, hunting in season only, etc.).

You forgot to say LOL.

texas yankee wrote:

It should be stored in a licensed explosive bunker, with access only by the registered ammo owner to retrieve a reasonable amount of ammunition for a legitimate purpose

- I'll locate a facility ASAP - you are obviously far more knowledgeable than I am, so would you be willing to monitor my ammo usage, and in your ultimate wisdom, decide how much ammo I should be able to retrieve at a time, and whether my lowly self is even worthy of handling my ammo allotment?? I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me, and I am humbled that you've decided I'm worthy of your attention.