House fire involving ammo.

[Pete]

What is the procedure regarding reporting a house fire at your own residence when you have quantities of ammunition in storage?
Do you tell 911 during the call or do you tell the FD when they arrive?

If I had sufficient time after emptying the property of humans and pets I would go back in for whatever I could rescue but acknowledge that I probably would not be able to do this.
So, we have a scenario where there is a lot of ammo getting very hot and flying about while the good guys from the FD are trying to save something of my house.

Do they withdraw under such circumstances?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[buckeye .45]

0.02
I had a thread a little while back about a house fire in which a fired artillery casing was found, and the issue of ammo in a housefire came up.
http://www.combatcarry.com/vbulletin...ad.php?t=19291
The ammo doesn't really fire per se, but the casing explodes and creates shrapnel. Informing 911 would probably be best, because the firefighter's might not be paying too much attention to you once they arrive.

[GPS]

Most of the time, ammo in a house fire poses no real danger to firefighters. When the cartridges heat up, the gunpowder deflagrates or burns but because the cartridge is not contained in a chamber, it is unable to build up sufficient pressure to propell the bullet for any distance. The bullet and case just more or less pop open and the casing jumps a couple of feet.

I would be more concerned if the homeowner said he was a black powder hunter. Black powder is considered an explosive that will detonate when stored in bulk. But the one case I can recall that really had us upset is when we found a live 40mm fragmentary grenade launcher shell sitting on some fools mantle. The guy apparently found it out on a military range while he was playing soldier one weekend and brought it home as a souvineer. He had a bit of 'splaining to do to some of our local ATF friends after we got the fire out.

[Tom G]

I bought a gun safe at Walmart to keep ammo in. The metal on the safe is thick enough to keep shell fragments from flying around. I keep guns in a seperate place and unloaded.

[Rob72]

Here's the deal- if you report ammo "in quantity", most FDs will order a pull back, and let it burn out. Some genuine concern, some caution in light of frequently reported half-truths, etc.. Just bear in mind.......

[Scott]

No worries here. My local FD arrives, watches for a bit, sprays the neighboring houses with water to keep them from being involved. If they have an extra hose they may put it on your burning house. Once the fire is burned out then they will pike and hose whatever is left to ensure nothing is salvagable.

[Mountaineer_Shootist]

After 30 years in the Fire Service I will agree with GPS. I am more concerned about spray cans and chemicals stored inside.