Ammunition in Fire Hazard

You hear fire depart­ments, and anti-gun orga­ni­za­tions like news­pa­pers, rou­tinely state things like “cooked off” ammu­ni­tion is dan­ger­ous. The like­li­hood of being hurt from a round of ammu­ni­tion “cooked off” in a fire is mag­ni­tudes of dan­ger less than your nor­mal fire sit­u­a­tion. Unless a car­tridge (round of ammu­ni­tion) is actu­ally par­tially con­tained (like in a bar­rel), it’s not going to achieve any sig­nif­i­cant veloc­ity. Indeed the laws of physics make it so that the bul­let itself is hardly going to move. The now empty brass cas­ing is going to become the “projectile.”

The Tempe Police Department’s Explosive Ordinance Detail responded to the scene due to the explo­sions caused by the ammu­ni­tion and fire­works. The fire is under inves­ti­ga­tion, but it is believed to be an elec­tri­cal fire, Reichling said.

In this case, the fire­works were by far more dan­ger­ous than the rounds of ammunition.

Read the whole “arti­cle” in the Arizona Republic.