Brassaholic13 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder? I'm told that water is your best choice. As far as I know, gunpowder does not require an outside source of oxygen. Oxygen displacing systems will probably help prevent the spread of the fire but may not put out the burning powder. If it doesn't require an outside source of O2, then H2O isn't going to put it out if it's already burning. It'll just spread it around like a grease fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 I was actually thinking about Baking Soda. I know that works on grease fires in the kitchen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Wow. Can't even imagine how you did it. One primer going off is simply not enough, yet it happened, you say. Did you have the TOP on the powder measure? Post #18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester121 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 I've had an extinguisher mounted next to the door jamb in the reloading room, and there's another in the laundry room 15' across the basement. I've probably been negligent about confirming they are charged. Also in the laundry room is a coiled up garden hose for draining the water heater, and I could probably have it hooked up to the utility sink in under a minute if things went sideways.... to try to save the house. Honestly this has to be such a freak occurrence I can't really see it being something to worry about. I get .45 small primer brass mixed in all the time and it doesn't detonate even Fed primers. Clean underwear and some parts from Hornady should solve the problem. Glad to hear you're safe, and that H is taking care of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrayfk05 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Well, there are 2 methods of putting out a fire. 1st is taking away the oxygen (or the flammable material) which we already established is not going to work on gunpowder. 2nd is cooling off the fire enough so the reaction (fire) stops, water can do that. How much water you would need to cool down a full powder hopper I wouldn't dare to guess. Your best options are not getting it one fire (duh) and after that making sure nothing else catches fire. Putting out a powder hopper fire is probably a lost cause, also because it is up in the air which is not exacly an easy to snuff place for a fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoder Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 I've had an extinguisher mounted next to the door jamb in the reloading room, and there's another in the laundry room 15' across the basement. I've probably been negligent about confirming they are charged. Also in the laundry room is a coiled up garden hose for draining the water heater, and I could probably have it hooked up to the utility sink in under a minute if things went sideways.... to try to save the house. Honestly this has to be such a freak occurrence I can't really see it being something to worry about. I get .45 small primer brass mixed in all the time and it doesn't detonate even Fed primers. Clean underwear and some parts from Hornady should solve the problem. Glad to hear you're safe, and that H is taking care of you. I agree. I'm not real worried about it. I am going to install sheet metal around the one side of my powder hopper just in case. This will keep the powder from going up if it ever happens again. The primer tube blowing was loud, but the design is good. It just shot out the top of the safety tube. If it wasn't so close to the hopper it wouldn't have been a big deal. I'm not going to move my powder drop to stage three with a case flare on two, I'll have to leave out my powder cop die. That would solve the problem too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Unbelievable. Its awful but I would love to see a video of it. look on you tube for a sparkler bomb video....I'm betting it was much like one of those... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder?I'm told that water is your best choice. As far as I know, gunpowder does not require an outside source of oxygen. Oxygen displacing systems will probably help prevent the spread of the fire but may not put out the burning powder. If it doesn't require an outside source of O2, then H2O isn't going to put it out if it's already burning. It'll just spread it around like a grease fire. H2O does not only remove the source of oxygen. It also lowers the temperarure of the burning substance. You need 3 things for a fire...fuel, oxygen, heat. Remove one of those three, no fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blind bat Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 This thread has me more worried about what might happen to my stash of powder in a house fire more than a primer detonation. I know powder is just flammable but having something similar to a magnesium fire could be pretty bad day for a firefighter. Or am I over thinking the situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulm540 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 (edited) wow, I am glad you are OK. Edited January 26, 2014 by bulm540 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester121 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 This thread has me more worried about what might happen to my stash of powder in a house fire more than a primer detonation. I know powder is just flammable but having something similar to a magnesium fire could be pretty bad day for a firefighter. Or am I over thinking the situation? Smokeless powder burns so fast it's all gone in a few seconds. If it's in a tightly-enclosed cabinet it might turn into a bomb, but unless you have a huge stash (I'd guess a few hundred pounds) probably no big deal. Firefighters are trained to avoid nasty surprises in house fires and I'm sure they deal with way worse things than gunpowder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyK Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Did a quick look at the MSDS info on the Hodgdon website for Winchester, Hodgdon and Some IMR powders as far as extinguishing a fire... The only thing listed is water and lots of it. As many of you know powder creates it's own oxygen so there is no way to cut off the air supply. Yes bullets will still fire underwater and in space... But the real surprise was for double base powder such as 700X and 800X the MSDS says Do Not Try to Extinguish the fire! It says to evacuate and isolate the fire.... It also recommends to only fight a powder fire from behind a barricade or berm... So spraying any powder fire with a pressurized chemical extinguisher might make the problem worse. All of this has got me thinking on how to deal with the same situation should it ever happen in my shop. And for those of you blissfully unaware there are limits to most of our homeowners insurance and the local fire codes that do limit the amount of smokeless powder you can have on hand. They do make fire blankets that can be thrown over an active fire. While it won't put out the fire it may help prevent it from spreading. Just a thought, hopefully one of our firefighters who has dealt with a powder fire can enlighten us as to the best thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassaholic13 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder?I'm told that water is your best choice. As far as I know, gunpowder does not require an outside source of oxygen. Oxygen displacing systems will probably help prevent the spread of the fire but may not put out the burning powder. If it doesn't require an outside source of O2, then H2O isn't going to put it out if it's already burning. It'll just spread it around like a grease fire. H2O does not only remove the source of oxygen. It also lowers the temperarure of the burning substance. You need 3 things for a fire...fuel, oxygen, heat. Remove one of those three, no fire. Ever put water on burning magnesium shavings? If not, try it and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoder Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 Just an update: Hornady really hooked me up fast with replacement parts and even gave me some extra parts I didn't ask for so I appreciate that. I replied back to them that they should put some kind of sheild around the plastic powder hopper to keep something like this from happening again. I even sent pictures. This was their reply: "Mr. Yoder this is why we built the shroud around the primer tube to prevent the primers from getting out of the primer system. Thanks " Holy crap. I think the fact the that the exploded primer tube ejected from the shroud hit the plastic hopper and it burst into flames shows that the primers ARE getting out of the priming system. I installed a piece of aluminum coil stock around mine now so it should be good. I'm also way more careful about my priming setup and small primer .45 brass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder?I'm told that water is your best choice. As far as I know, gunpowder does not require an outside source of oxygen. Oxygen displacing systems will probably help prevent the spread of the fire but may not put out the burning powder. If it doesn't require an outside source of O2, then H2O isn't going to put it out if it's already burning. It'll just spread it around like a grease fire. H2O does not only remove the source of oxygen. It also lowers the temperarure of the burning substance. You need 3 things for a fire...fuel, oxygen, heat. Remove one of those three, no fire. Ever put water on burning magnesium shavings? If not, try it and see what happens.No I haven't, and neither have you. Water on a magnesium fire boils before it ever touches the metal to cool it off, therefore you aren't doing anything with the water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I'll do you one better....put ANYTHING on a thermite fire.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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