Ammo going off in a house fire

[thallub]

For nearly 50 years i've done EOD/UXO stuff. First served 20+ years in US Army EOD.

Destroyed a billion or two rounds of small arms ammunition, mostly by burning in open pits with dunnage. A bullet or cartridge case seldom travels more than 20 feet after the round cooks off.

This pit contains about ten million rounds of 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammo:

 

[sir_n0thing]

This pit contains about ten million rounds of 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammo:

And I can't find any at my LGS...

 

[bbqbob51]

Thallub, I guess we have little to worry about but we should have even less worry if instead of burning off the ammo you just delivered it to my house.

 

[grumpa72]

http://www.saami.org/videos/sporting_ammunition_and_the_firefighter.cfm

SAAMI put out a video of ammo in a fire. They have one in which a fire fighter, in normal gear, gets hit (intentionally) standing in a dangerous place to show that this is not life threatening. At one point, the fire has 100,000 rounds in it.