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FIRE SAFETY


Chris Keen

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I posted this as a reply to another topic, and thought it might be a good idea to start a new thread reminding everybody of the benefits of having a fire extinguisher in your reloading room. Since many of us are cooped up inside our houses during the Winter months waiting for a nice warm day to go outside and shoot, we may tend to do more reloading to pass the time, or perhaps to get a jump-start on the upcoming season.

Therefore I think this is a perfect time to talk about FIRE SAFETY in relationship to bullet reloading.

As a fire protection engineer I always try to be diligent about fire safety. Fires can get out of control faster than most people can imagine. And when smokeless powder & primers are in close proximity, the danger can multiply.

I believe that having a fire extinguisher "right next to your bench" is NOT the best place to keep an extinguisher.

Keep your fire extinguishers near the door of your reloading room.

The NFPA says the proper way to use a fire extinguisher is to "keep your back to an unobstructed exit, and stand at least 6-8 feet from the fire". Most of our reloading areas are not much bigger than 8 feet across, so you should be at the proper distance if you keep your extinguisher near your door. Then while on your way out, if you think that the fire is controllable, you can pick up the fire ext. by the door and attempt to extinguish the fire ... while keeping your path of egress open and available at all times. Never let the fire be between you and your exit path. That includes before the fire starts.

  • 1. If you are in the room when a fire starts .... your 1st priority should be getting out quickly. Your life is priceless, and putting a safe distance between you and the fire should be the most important thing. Dont worry about your house. Dont worry about your guns. You and your family are the only priority here. We have insurance for everything else.

  • 2. It's never a good idea to go into a room that's on fire in order to retrieve a fire extinguisher. If you are NOT in the room when the fire starts, and feel you can control the fire with a fire ext., having it near the door makes it easier and safer to get to, without putting yourself in harms way. Also consider what if your wife, girl-friend, kids, or other family member is the only one home at the time. You don't want them going into the reloading room while it's on fire.

Also please, please, please ...... do more than just buy a fire ext. and forget about it. You need to have a fire safety plan. And you should rehearse this plan with all members of your family. You should check the pressure gauge on the fire ext. once a month to make sure it's still got adequate pressure to do it's intended job. You should also educate your family on the dangers associated with reloading (fires) and what to do and what NOT to do, should a fire break out when you are not home.

Better that everyone gets out alive than try and be a hero & die trying. :mellow:

And finally there is a ton of resources on the internet now days about fire extinguishers, and fire safety. It only takes a few minutes to read up on this type of information. It could prove invaluable in an emergency.

http://www.usfa.dhs....inguishers.shtm

http://www.ilpi.com/...inguishers.html

http://www.hanford.g...ty/extingrs.htm

If you have any comments or other topics of FIRE SAFETY you would like to add to this thread please feel free to post them here. There are alot of other areas of fire safety that I did not touch on here, including where to safely store powder and primers, and how much is too much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I work in a gunshop and we keep staggering amounts of Powder and Primers on hand.

So we have the Primers as far from the exits as is possible, the only thing stored near them is projectiles and reloading equipment, as primers are likely to explode in a fire they are well away from where the staff and customers usually are located.

The Powder that is kept on hand for retail sales (excess is stored off site) is stored in a mobile fire resistant container (by law), near the largest exit and as far from the primers as is physically possible, common sense. This lessens the likelihood of a catastrophic event, and enables us to remove the powder from the premises as safely as is possible.

My own reloading room is long and narrow, one exit only. Powder and primers are stored at the far end, I have huge supplies of each and excess powder is stored in a plastic lined locker that is kept in the garden shed. 1 5kg Fire extinguisher is outside the room on the wall next to the door. Trash-can (likeliest source of fire) is at the exit end of the room under the bench, but not impeding exit. Another is in the Garage that the loading room is located within. So I have a backup plan if I am in the garage if a fire breaks out and another if I am attempting to exit.

Garden hose is nearby if required, but personally I am out of there. That is what the insurance is for.

Don't get a really big extinguisher, you may be tempted to attack a fire that is beyond your capabilities because you have the Fire Terminator 2000. My brother is a Fireman and he has seen the end result of someone using a large extinguisher for longer than they should have. I took his advise on how big an exstinguisher to get and for how long you should be there. If the fire starts and the exstinguisher is at hand, 20 seconds is the limit. If a fire is of sufficient magnitude that an extinguisher of 20lbs total weight can't get it under control immediately, get outa nd fast.

If you are rural and the Fire Service can't get there in a timely fashion, have a backup plan on the exterior of the house.

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A 5lbs. extinguisher is pretty big, for a typical household. 2.5lbs. extinguishers is what you normally see kept under the kitchen sink, or in a vehicle. But like you said if you can't easily put out a fire with a common household fire extinguisher (2.5 or 5lbs.) then you should get out of Dodge.

Also good advice on rural settings. The fire department may take 15-20 minutes (or longer) to arrive, but don't let this tempt you into trying to be a hero and fight a fire you cannot control. Primers & powder can ignite at anytime, and you don't want to be anywhere them when they go off.

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5lbs is pretty big, but it is small enough to keep you from thinking you can fight this thing even when you should clear out. Having a second one is handy just incase you "nearly" get it sorted or for when you think you have it sorted and it ain't.

Never keep exstinguishers in a cupboard or under the sink. Stuff gets stacked in front of it. Mount it on the wall. Yes it is ugly, but so are 3rd degree burns on kids.

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If you have a big house or sleep soundly, and might not hear a smoke detector go off way down in basement or in garage, look into one of these wireless smoke detectors.

I set off basement detector and could not hear it at all upstairs in bedroom with door closed when awake.

The wireless detectors sound alarm for all detectors in the house when just one of them activates.

All the benefits of a hardwired system without the wiring.

BB

Edited by BlackBuzzard
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  • 2 weeks later...

BlackBuzzard.

Good onfo on the wireless alarms. I will look for those.

I have three around the house, all in the dwelling not in the garage or relaoding room. The one that was in the garage would go off if what we were working on generated smoke. eg Welding.

Edited by gm iprod
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  • 1 month later...

I've been thinking about proper primer/powder storage lately. Does anyone have any tips? As an explosives engineer, I've been looking at small Type II magazines. One for powder and one for primers, and what about loaded ammunition? They are pretty expensive, made from steel and with hardwood interiors. Is there a better solution for residential storage? I don't have nearly as much as Merlin pictured.

By the way, here are the laws for Washington State. Maybe your state has similar laws on the books.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-52-71045

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-52-71065

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-52-71080

Edited by splashdown
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So this would not be the ideal manner of storage?

Wait! Could those be? The elusive Federal pistol primers in their natural habitat? They were once thought to be extinct. Where was this picture taken? I must mount an expedition to capture them. :sight:

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  • 9 months later...

About 8 or 12 years ago I was helping a friend that moved to the USA from Hong Kong buy a house. I helped them get home owners insurance, the insurance agent recommended that they get a fire extinguisher. I had been living in my house for a long time and didn't have one so I took his suggestion and bought a few a scattered them all over the house. A few months later I had a kitchen fire and I am convinced it I didn't have the extinguisher I would have lost my house. So I guess you can call it Karma, helping someone probably saved my house from burning

Now as far as where you store it, I bought one for my mother and she decided to keep in in the closet hidden away with a bunch of stuff piled on it. I tried to convince her to store it someplace where it won't take 20 minutes to get to but she has a mind of her own and won't listen

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Now as far as where you store it, I bought one for my mother and she decided to keep in in the closet hidden away with a bunch of stuff piled on it. I tried to convince her to store it someplace where it won't take 20 minutes to get to but she has a mind of her own and won't listen

Can you get it on a mount, screwed to the wall/frame of the closet? Out of the way, but off the ground, handy and always in the exact same place.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Info on safer storage for components would be helpful.so Here i would like to thanks for your great effort here also wanna tell you one this you can also visit to this site for more info about fire Extinguisher so just have a look of safety2go.com

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  • 5 months later...

I wonder if a fire generated from or excelerated by an excess amount of powder and primers in your home would still be covered by your homeowners policy?!?! I bet there are NFPA regulations regarding the amount of powder or primers you can store that if you exceed, a no good insurance company would deem that the fire is not covered.

Anybody have any input on this topic? This kind of dovetails with the post above about safe storage of components as well.

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My agent is a good friend, I ask him questions similar to this. What he tells me every time is that unless it is listed as something they don't pay for, they will pay for it. So, if it is not specifically listed in the policy, they are on the hook. I don't know if this is a state thing or what but I'm not worried about it.

I wonder if a fire generated from or excelerated by an excess amount of powder and primers in your home would still be covered by your homeowners policy?!?! I bet there are NFPA regulations regarding the amount of powder or primers you can store that if you exceed, a no good insurance company would deem that the fire is not covered.

Anybody have any input on this topic? This kind of dovetails with the post above about safe storage of components as well.

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My agent is a good friend, I ask him questions similar to this. What he tells me every time is that unless it is listed as something they don't pay for, they will pay for it. So, if it is not specifically listed in the policy, they are on the hook. I don't know if this is a state thing or what but I'm not worried about it.

I wonder if a fire generated from or excelerated by an excess amount of powder and primers in your home would still be covered by your homeowners policy?!?! I bet there are NFPA regulations regarding the amount of powder or primers you can store that if you exceed, a no good insurance company would deem that the fire is not covered.

Anybody have any input on this topic? This kind of dovetails with the post above about safe storage of components as well.

Thanks, time to give my agent a call.

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  • 7 months later...

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