Quote:
Originally Posted by Leighton Stallones
Tell us about the powder and temperature that caused the fire.
I just checked my 4198 from the 1940's-50's and it smelled fine and I store it in my garage workshop. How old was your powder??
|
The powder was WW-2 government surplus 4831 as was sold in the 60's and 70's. The powder was at least 70 years old. I bought it from a friend a few years ago. At the time I bought it it was fine. I checked it a month or so back and it was going bad. You will know when you smell bad powder, it has a strong acid smell. I removed the two gallon jugs of it from my powder storage, an old upright freezer, and put it on top of that freezer. The freezer was outside by the back door to my shop/garage. I was going to spread it on my lawn as fertilizer and had a five gallon bucket that I was going to put it in and then fill with water. The day/evening it cooked off was hot and dry. The powder ignited and then a gallon of WD-40 setting next to it exploded and that alerted the neighbors who called the fire department, one even hopped the fence and tried to put the fire out with our watering hose.
Apparently small amounts of powder that are decomposing don't generate enough heat to spontaneously ignite as I haven't ever read anything about old cartridges igniting. I've had several one pound cans go bad over the years and never had a problem but, I didn't let them sit around when I found they were going bad. In this case there was something like eight pounds in each of the jugs. The large amount and the hot day was enough for it to cook off.