SEATTLE - Two people died after an early morning fire in Darrington.
At about 4 a.m. the Darrington Fire Department responded to a report of a fire in a mobile home.
Tony Haldane, wife Robin Haldane and Leotta Pittenger were sleeping inside the mobile home on Montague Avenue.
Fire Chief Dennis Fenstermaker of Fire District 24 says Tony Haldane collects guns, and as firefighters arrived they could hear live ammunition exploding.
"Ammunition is something that can be dangerous," said Fenstermaker.
"We thought it was fireworks," said neighbor Natasha Landweer.
"We got up and looked out the window and said 'Oh my God our neighbor's house is on fire,'" she said.
Haldane's wife was able to get out of the burning home, but the woman's neighbors say is Tony's mother-in-law, was still inside. He tried to rescue her but was unable to. He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with severe burns. He died Saturday afternoon.
Fenstermaker said it's a small community and people know each other.
"This hits close to home," he said.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
http://m.cnn.com/primary/_vTAu8g-i3hpOxThj1http://www.king5.com/news/Elderly-woman-dead-in-Darrington-mobile-home-fire-114860534.htmlOn April 7, 2010, a Ventura County firefighter was injured while battling a blaze that consumed a two-story home. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition began going off in the home while firefighters battled the blaze, and propane canisters also exploded, officials said.
Torres was outside the home, protecting a neighboring building, when he was struck by a piece of shrapnel. It was unclear what kind of flying debris struck Torres, officials said. Torres was treated by fellow firefighters at the scene and transported to Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks then flown by helicopter to UCLA Medical Center for treatment by eye-trauma specialists. When the cartridges started exploding, firefighters retreated from the home.
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While I cant speak for every station in the state of georgia I can speak for my station. Of the last 4 structure fires we have been on 3 had exploding ammunition. As saftey on all of those scenes and as a firefighter Im not going to lie it scared the crap out of me. I instantly got on the radio and let all units both on scene and in bound know of the danger. Sure some people will argue that we have a dangerous job and they are right however, bases on condition, construction, etc. we have a good idea what the fire will do and how to combat it. I have yet to figure out how to anticipate exploding rounds from a structure fire. To make matters worse at one scene the homeowners were adimate that there were NO weapons or ammunition in the home. HA HA not only did we pull our crews back from the house at one point because so many rounds were going of, we found handguns in the home that had serial numbers scratched off. The homeowners gave us a hard time about how we needed to recover thier valuables (safe etc) and fast, yet when the handguns came out nobody wanted to claim those.
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Ammunition Facts:
Ammunition that is stored in the boxes sold by the manufacturer is not dangerous in a fire. If ignited by intense heat, the brass or plastic cartridge will burst. The particles will not travel very far. The protective clothing that firefighters wear will protect them.
However, if ammunition is stored in a metal container such as a GI .50 caliber ammo box, the ammunition can explode under the right conditions.
LOADED firearms in a house fire can "cook off", meaning the round will fire. This is a dangerous situation. The bullet has all the power as if it was fired normally. There was a case where a loaded semi-automatic rifle was in a wall rack during a fire. The heat caused the rifle to go off, and it continued to fire until the magazine was empty. One round hit a fire truck. The firefighters thought they were beign shot at, and pulled away from the scene of the fire. The house burned to the ground.
http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/exploding-ammunition-is-this
