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Two-alarm fire displaces four in Allston; firefighters pulled when live ammo starts going off
By adamg on Wed, 05/18/2016 - 6:28am
House on fire. Photo by Margaret Willison.
The Boston Fire Department reports a fire that erupted around 1:45 a.m. at 42-44 Raymond St. in Allston displaced four people, but didn't injure anybody.
The department reports firefighters were pulled out of the building when live ammunition started going off in the blaze.
The department estimates damage at $600,000. The cause is under investigation.
The remains of a porch. photo by BFD):
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Comments
Ammunition? Yikes.
I live about three-quarters of a mile away, as the crow flies, and the strong smell of smoke woke me around 2. I had my poor husband searching upstairs and down to make sure it wasn't coming from someplace inside our own house.
Ammunition is not as
Ammunition is not as dangerous on fire as you might think. Without it being loaded in a gun, it tends to pop, and the projectiles generally won't penetrate bunker gear. However, to be safe it's good to step aside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SlOXowwC4c
could there be a more biased source?
That video was created by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
http://www.nssf.org/
As the firearms industry's trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation works to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.
Do you have an alternate
Do you have an alternate source?
do you?
just thought people might want to know who made that "don't worry, bullets aren't dangerous" video
">https://www.youtube.com
SAAMI (ammunition industry standards organization similar to ASTM/UL) training video for firefighters.
Mythbusters
http://mythresults.com/episode85
Basically, a gun works not because cartridges push a bullet on their own. They work because the chamber where the explosion happens is extremely contained. The only outlet is the barrel and muzzle, so the explosion goes in a single direction and has to push the bullet out of its way to get there. That pushing is what creates the lethal speed of the bullet when it finally leaves the gun out ahead of the wave of hot fireball explosion that creates the muzzle flash.
No chamber, barrel, muzzle? No lethal explosion, just a quick separation of the bullet from the shell of the cartridge and the explosion goes everywhere all at once instead of remaining focused behind the bullet.
That doesn't mean there couldn't be some one-in-a-million chance of the right conditions providing a mock chamber/barrel. It also doesn't mean there isn't also a loaded gun next to the ammo that is heating up and will explode as if you pulled the trigger providing a lethal shot. So, for safety's sake, you give exploding ammo some distance. But ammo in a fire isn't a likely lethal threat.
OMG, logic and research
Thank you. (Most of the other comments below this one are decent too. Nice to see more than knee-jerk fear).
On the other hand...
True that, but if you have a lot of ammo in one place, or, if a bunch of ammo is contained within a tight enclosure, even a metal fishing tackle box, all bets are off. It's not the ammo per se that's the problem, it's powder inside of a metal enclosure.
For example, pipe bombs, pressure cooker bombs, etc. -- Tossed into a fire, a handful of black powder would just make a bright fizzle. Enclosed in a metal container, on the other hand....
And once you know that there's *some* ammo in there, you don't know how much. A closetful going off all at once would be a problem.
bunker gear?
is that standard gear for the fire department? If no (my guess), then maybe it posed a threat to the personnel. I leave the assessment of that to the guys trying to put out the fire.
I live two houses down the
I live two houses away from the the house that burned. The noise from the fire and ammunition sounded like a mix between a shootout and fireworks going off. I couldn't figure out what was happening at first then I looked at the neighboring house and saw flames that looked like roman candles shooting up over the roof.
same here
live off of Brighton - could smell it and hear the sirens, thought it was one of the businesses on Harvard at first.
I knew it was something big...
Fire trucks pass by my home on their way to calls all the time, and I can usually sleep through the noice when they pass by; but I could tell this one was big because the sirens were non-stop enough to wake me. Not just the fire trucks, but also police and ambulances rushing past my home to get there.
I could smell the smoke too, since my windows were open a bit.
I hope nobody was hurt, and that the people who were displaced find a new home soon.