House Explodes While Man Is Reloading

You ARE being silly about the exploded cases nonsense. The very video YOU cited explained that loaded ammo does not present any sort of significant threat in a fire. Firefighters DO NOT NEED BODY ARMOR for this. Their normal gear provides adequate protection.
 
F. Guffey wrote: If he had been familiar WITH THE LAWS/RULES he would have had hazmat placards on the front of his home.
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Seriously?? Do you know how little info a 704 sign conveys?

Want them yo use a D.O.T. Placard? Placard #4 flammable solid. Add the number 133 for the NAERG reference. That still doesn't tell them a whole lot.

From a fire response stand point there are probaly worse things under your kitchen counter. Aerosol cans for starters. And then there is the stuff in the garage.
 
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It seems obvious there was some ignition source and a plentiful source of fuel in the room, a definite No-No. It's hard to see how a spark could be created by any act of normal means of gun or ammunition handling. Hopefully he will heal up and 'fess up to what he could have done better. We all make mistakes, that just happened to be a really costly one.
 
Spacecoast,

The fire inspectors are saying that powder was spilled from the bench, either primed cases got knocked over or an open jug. The spilled powder was ignited by a space heater in the room. The powder flash was exaggerated by years worth of "leftover" powder in the carpeting of the room. Once the ignition started, the whole room flashed, igniting the powder storage safes. Thus the explosions.
 
I joined a Pistol Club, at 18 years of age, in a town called Bolton, in Lancashire, UK. My first pistol was a Star .22 LR Semi-auto.

The trigger felt like someone had poured iron fillings into the sear mechanism.

I did not know much about the sport, nothing about reloading at all!

I used to take a Bus to this old chaps house, he was on the Board of the Gun Club, he had a car, so I got a ride to the Club, one night a week.

One night his Wife said he was in the shed, down the garden.

I went down to get him, I had seen the inside before, he had packets of primers the first time I went there, 100 to a tray.
He said they took up too much room, so he put all of them into a nice clean glass jam jar, now sitting on a shelf, that shook every time you slammed the door. It sat above the concrete floor!

Last time I went into that shed, I had read about the components, a Library Book I think. I don't think he blew himself up!

I got into reloading a few years later when I moved to Toronto Canada.
 
. Actually, I was thinking about removing it { carpet } so my reloading stool, with casters, will move easier. I just may do that today.
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Good idea :) . Good o' painted basement cement floor works for me. I wear tennis shoes to be the 'cushion' while standing up reloading. And no space heater when working with powders.

Goes to show you need to be careful and think things through.
 
Smokeless powder will flash almost as bad as black. A piece of brass falling did not ignite it, but once ignited, smokeless will do some pretty impressive flashing. A couple years ago, I burned about 40 pounds of varying brands and numbers of smokeless powder. It was all old and starting to degrade. It all flashed. Some of it so fast, that it acted like fire works. One of the old Hercules pistol powders exploded. This all occurred in the paper or metal cans the powder came packed in. I had me a bonfire built and threw the cans one by one in it. Redneck entertainment, Georgia style.;)
 
Obviously, he must have had some black powder stored there. Smokeless powder may burn and flash but it is not going to cause an explosion unless in a very contained area like a cartridge.
 
Salvadore, the correct way to store powder is in an airtight container that will not contain much pressure. The containers the powder comes in are proper storage units for the powder.
 
There is a very boring story about the development of a case to replace the 303 British chamber. It could have worked but the British insisted on using the only thing they knew about powder, that was the powder they used in the 303 ammo.

Problem, the round they were developing heated the receiver and barrel. Before they could pull the trigger the heat caused the powder to cook-off, and then there was the added pressure. The British needing guns and ammo so they turned it over to U.S. . We built the P 14 with a 303 British chamber.

Contact Pat's Reloading in Ohio or Jeff's in Kentucky, ask them how much powder you can purchase and haul with out hassles and ask them about containers for shipping and then ask about the capacity of the container.

F. Guffey
 
An ejected round couldn't have sparked. The reason BP producers use brass tooling is that they don;t SPARK.

I could easily believe the more detailed account of the space heater. God bless
 
"At least he won't have to take the Christmas lights down this summer."

Too funny :D he will have to put them back up next winter though
 
I do have a space heater in my reloading room It's electric and on the far side of the room from my reloading bench. The room is 10x20 with a concrete floor. I vacuum up the occasional powder spills. All my powder is stored in original containers on a shelf on the other side from my bench. I feel very safe.
 
We had a guy in Richmond, VA blow himself and his house up a couple years ago with a Civil War cannon shell that he found. I think we was trying to inert it. Hazards of living near old battlefields...
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No, I would call that the hazards of messing with something you should not be messing with!
 
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