Fire extinguisher close to your bench?

[DeputyDog25]

I have 3 fire extinguishers in the reloading room, one near the bench, one in the closet where I store the powder and misc packing material, and one as you walk in the door. I also have several fire extinguishers throughout the house as well. Call me overdoing it, but I would rather have too many than not enough.

[GRUMPA]

I have 1 right in the same room with all the reloading gear, second 1 is by the kitchen. Any sort of emergency response in these neck of the woods is over 1/2hr and you have to talk them in to find the place.

[georgerkahn]

I reckon any "fire" from powder would be "Powder: 1, everything else, 0" -- but I do have a fairly large fire extinguisher at bench side. I reload in basement, and should I (hopefully) still be ambulatory, my thinking is the fire extinguisher -- if I think and move quickly -- might afford me passage up the stairs and to safety. I don't know if this would work, and truly pray I never will need to put it to the test... however, that fire extinguisher DOES afford a good feeling...
BEST!
georgerkahn

[1989toddm]

Thanks for all the input! I agree that powder would probably be gone by the time I could get a FE. I also don't make sparks when reloading, nor do I smoke there. But I didn't set off a primer in a lee loader the other day. I was outside and it didn't even lift the punch out of the case but it did open my eyes a bit more to the unexpected. Anything can happen and I also agree the quick thinking mind is your best weapon in any hazardous situation.

[mold maker]

Getting close enough to a bulk powder fire, to put it out is doubtful. Keeping all ignition sources away from the area and a clear escape route is more important.
Getting the family to safety, and calling the FD is first.
Access to a water hose and or FE is secondary.
If you've never practiced with a fire extinguisher, your in for a surprise. It isn't like point and shoot. There is a technique to successful use of it. You have to be close and direct it at the base (source) of the fuel and sweep back and fourth and follow the flame up to stop re-ignition.
Often the smoke and fumes produced are toxic, causing death before the fire is knocked down. Even breathing the extinguisher dust, can severely choke you.
That said, I live within 1/3 mile pf a top rated FD, and still have extinguishers at hand, where fires are likely possible. It is cheaper than insurance and reduces rates.

[MBTcustom]

I have fire extinguishers located in the shop, the house, and the bluing shed. There is no place that cannot be accessed by one.
Its just like a gun. Only helps if you have it real darn handy when you need it in that once in a lifetime disaster.
Guess what? I check the air on my spare tire as well.

And to those of you that think gunpowder is this stuff that burns perpetually regardless of encouragement to the contrary, feel free to watch the video at the bottom of the page in this link and educate yourselves better:
http://www.saami.org/

[MT Gianni]

One near the casting pot. One in the boiler room 15 feet away from the loading equipment. The only conceivable ignition source in that room is the lighting and electronic powder scale/dispenser. My concern for that ranks up there with an invasion from Vatican City.

[garym1a2]

I guess the making of this video is the cause of the ammo shortage. Did they really have to burn test a whole tractor trailer of ammo.

I have fire extinguishers located in the shop, the house, and the bluing shed. There is no place that cannot be accessed by one.
Its just like a gun. Only helps if you have it real darn handy when you need it in that once in a lifetime disaster.
Guess what? I check the air on my spare tire as well.

And to those of you that think gunpowder is this stuff that burns perpetually regardless of encouragement to the contrary, feel free to watch the video at the bottom of the page in this link and educate yourselves better:
http://www.saami.org/

[MBTcustom]

I guess the making of this video is the cause of the ammo shortage. Did they really have to burn test a whole tractor trailer of ammo.

First of all, that video was made long before the shortage.
Second, the ammo was donated to SAAMI for the purpose of this experiment.
Thirdly, there are many of us who have stores of components and loaded ammo that approach that amount.
Fourthly, if your local fire dept. actually watched that video, they might actually respond and save your house instead of letting it burn down around your pitiful butt while they watch from a "safe" distance.
Fifthly, if you think getting back all those pallets of ammo would cause even a blip in the supply and demand curve, you really need to take a look around at the real world.

This is was something that gun owners did to convince the fire departments across the nation to quit letting reloaders homes burn to the ground when they hear ammo popping off.
This was a huge boon to reloaders and shooters across the nation, and it was worth every penny of cost and grain of powder burnt.

[longranger]

Fire extinguishers are rated a percentage of what a professional is capable of extinguishing. Using letters and numbers that indicate type and amount of fire that can be expected to be extinguished by a non proffesional in a given size and agent.
Type A fire, wood,paper,common textiles agent usually water,rare anymore are the 2.5 gal H2O big silver cans.Straight water extinguishers are out of favor in all commercial occupancies unless a specific need is present.
Type B fire,petroleum products,oil,gas,grease ect. Usually Sodium Bicarbonate with some anti caking agents added.
Type C fires,energized electrical equipment,Co2,Halon(very expensive for expensive equipment)
Type D fires,combustible metals,i.e. magnesium,virtually dry Portland cement with some additives.
The most common and useful F/E is the 2A10BC @ 5lbs.it will cover most every situation in incipient(early) stage.
If you discover a fire and your comfortable with using your extinguisher then go ahead after sounding an alarm to the occupants.If the fire is bigger than you are comfortable with or your not putting it out with 1 F/E,close doors behind you and evacuate and notify.
It is a good idea to once a month or so using a soft rubber mallet tap the sides and bottom of the F/E until feels like jello inside and you feel vibrations,check gauge and green is good.This will ensure the powder is loose and will expel when desired.

[garym1a2]

The powder I burnt was not that strong of a fire. It did not even start the wood under it on fire. The real worry is if its a large amount in a sealed metal container. In a house fire I would be much more worried about gas or other chemicals. A car in a house fire can be quite nasty,

[joesig]

One ABC by every door. Was one of the first things I got when I got the house and shop. Was in no rush to see if State Farm insurance is any good or not! Thankfully, knock on wood, never had to use one.

[lancem]

As time goes by I don't worry about things like this too much anymore. With the closest volunteer fire department over 30 miles away over bad roads, if I can't put it out right now slowing it down won't help. Working to prevent instead of putting out is the way I look at things, after a lifetime of knowing and watching preppers prepping for just about everything that hasn't happened I've decided to just sit back and see what happens, either I will be ready or I won't...

[firefly1957]

I have a fire extinguisher at the door of my reloading room if i had a small fire somehow in there it could be used to stop that but if powder in bulk caught it would be time to run! I once lit a pound of mixed smokeless i found at a yard sale i thought it would slowly flair up was i wrong. Most of that powder was little diamonds of Alcan powder more than one type the rest was some green dot and red dot and rifle powders. The owner had passed and his grandkids just put it all in one can and sold it along with a Mec 400 12 gauge reloading press for $10 . I bought the press and poured the powder in the lawn with a piece of masking tape to it like a fuse. Upon lighting the tape it burned to the powder and i backed off the powder flared for about a half second then POOF! it went up in a huge hot fireball the heat was very intense and the ball of fire went 30 feet in the air looked like a scale atom bomb . The heat was instant and felt hot over 30 feet away the intensity killed the grass in a area nearly 8 feet across . The pressure would probably have repelled most fire fighting sprays but there was no time to use them anyway as the time from ignition to fire out was under 2 seconds.

[TXGunNut]

My house fire extinguisher is close to the back door, handy to the kitchen and loading room. I figure when the time comes I'll either grab it and fight or head on out the back door.

[Mtnfolk75]

We keep a small ABC under the kitchen sink which is directly across from the electric cook stove & oven, the kitchen is 36"wide and the back door is 5' away & opens out. I have my reloading & casting set-up downstairs in the mudroom with a door 6' from my bench. No FE downstairs.

[Bzcraig]

Since my loading bench is my garage work bench there are two extinguishers within 10'

[Multigunner]

Good Steel wrote

And to those of you that think gunpowder is this stuff that burns perpetually regardless of encouragement to the contrary, feel free to watch the video at the bottom of the page in this link and educate yourselves better:
http://www.saami.org/

Its long been known that brass cased cartridges isolate the effects to prevent a spontaneous detonation of all the enclosed propellants, at least in common fires. There are extraordinary situations that will result in massive explosions and uncontrollable fires.
An example was early testing on Cordite loaded ammunition. In tests shooting bullets into ammo boxes would not set of an explosion, burning crates of ammo with fires started at the top of the stack would not set off an explosion, but when the center crate of a stack was set afire the heat cooked off the ammo and induced sympathetic explosion of the entire stack of crates resulting in a crater 35 feet across.

Canisters of propellants are made of thin materials so the canister will rupture before internal pressure builds to explosive proportions, but every propellant has a tipping point at which a loose pile of the propellant will explode just as if it were in a bomb casing. Black Powder as a Class A explosive has the lowest tipping point in relation to weight. Degraded Double Base propellants would come next with heat degraded cordite at the top of the list.
Some years back a gentleman who manufactured BP for reinactor organizations was killed when his basement operation blew up. The blast killed him, his wife who was on the patio above the basement and a neighbor who had come to try to help.

There have been numerous situations where propellants ended up acting as an explosive. Even wheat dust and flour can explode violently under the right circumstances.

High nitroglycerin content propellants can and have burned and exploded while completely inundated with water. The British lost five warships to magazine explosions before they figured that out. One Japanese warship blew up simply because a ventilator fan failed and temperature in the magazine rose above 125 degrees for several hours.

The small amounts of powder most reloaders keep are not much of a threat, but some like to hoard hundreds of pounds of powder and a few don't exercise much if any caution in how its stored.

If my neighbor's garage blows up thats between him and his insurance company, but if the explosion is big enough to send his lawnmower crashing through my roof then it would concern me.
A truck garage near my home was the site of explosions from barrels of laquer and laquer thinner cooking off, with flaming 55 gal drums raining down all over the neighborhood. Baked the paint off one wall. So I'm a bit concerned about what might be caught up in a fire.

[hiram1]

never do i have over one pound of powder in my reloading room.it is in a room all to it self 20 steps from the reloading room.looks like a well house.with a roof that will come off .it is a walk in room just for that. brick walls with one in wood on the inside.

[MT Gianni]

Good Steel wrote

Its long been known that brass cased cartridges isolate the effects to prevent a spontaneous detonation of all the enclosed propellants, at least in common fires. There are extraordinary situations that will result in massive explosions and uncontrollable fires.
An example was early testing on Cordite loaded ammunition. In tests shooting bullets into ammo boxes would not set of an explosion, burning crates of ammo with fires started at the top of the stack would not set off an explosion, but when the center crate of a stack was set afire the heat cooked off the ammo and induced sympathetic explosion of the entire stack of crates resulting in a crater 35 feet across.

Canisters of propellants are made of thin materials so the canister will rupture before internal pressure builds to explosive proportions, but every propellant has a tipping point at which a loose pile of the propellant will explode just as if it were in a bomb casing. Black Powder as a Class A explosive has the lowest tipping point in relation to weight. Degraded Double Base propellants would come next with heat degraded cordite at the top of the list.
Some years back a gentleman who manufactured BP for reinactor organizations was killed when his basement operation blew up. The blast killed him, his wife who was on the patio above the basement and a neighbor who had come to try to help.

There have been numerous situations where propellants ended up acting as an explosive. Even wheat dust and flour can explode violently under the right circumstances.

High nitroglycerin content propellants can and have burned and exploded while completely inundated with water. The British lost five warships to magazine explosions before they figured that out. One Japanese warship blew up simply because a ventilator fan failed and temperature in the magazine rose above 125 degrees for several hours.

The small amounts of powder most reloaders keep are not much of a threat, but some like to hoard hundreds of pounds of powder and a few don't exercise much if any caution in how its stored.

If my neighbor's garage blows up thats between him and his insurance company, but if the explosion is big enough to send his lawnmower crashing through my roof then it would concern me.
A truck garage near my home was the site of explosions from barrels of laquer and laquer thinner cooking off, with flaming 55 gal drums raining down all over the neighborhood. Baked the paint off one wall. So I'm a bit concerned about what might be caught up in a fire.

Cordite was last manufactured in the 1930's.