Thread: Change of Address requirements

Originally Posted by No.3

Depends on the rating and what's stored around it. A fire proof safe is rated to a temperature exposure/time before that heat penetrates into the interior of the safe - so if you go over the rating the internals get heated quicker. Generally, modern houses (last few years of construction) with new standard wiring are pretty good for systems failures as the cause of ignition but you still get the 'human factor' as a cause (i.e. people doing unsafe things for whatever reason). Also, modern furnishings and internals are quite problematic as fuel loading so as a general rule my recommendation is store anything that burns (including LPG bottles/cannisters, fuel containers, aerosols etc etc) out of the house and in a separate outbuilding away from ignition sources. Also, as far as ammo and things that are designed to create a lot of pressure when they expand again - my advice - is to create venting pathways if they are solid and reasonably well-sealed containers. Basically it's minimising the risk of making a bad situation worse should you have a fire. Worth noting that even the army-type standard steel ammo box is designed to deform the sides out from under the lid seal to prevent it popping under pressure (an intended weakness).

There isn't a 'projectile hazard' from the bullets as such, as the case won't contain the pressure in a fire like it will if supported by a rifle chamber - testing has shown that at around 1-1.5m anything projecting out from an uncontained fire shouldn't penetrate firefighter's protective clothing but if you pile a heap of rounds together and pack them into a sealed box that will allow the gas pressure to rise until the box fails you could run into shrapnel problems.

Having seen what the remains of a shed fire looked like with an ammo cupboard involved (not the cause of the fire) the damage is not insignificant and was surprising. Worse than the point of ignition, and partially destroyed a section of block wall.

And also, worth pointing out the volume of ammo is a key variable in terms of 'potential'. 20 rounds of mid size rifle ammo is meh, a few thousand magnum rounds is a whole nuther level...

Fair points all

In the new place I will keep bulk powder in an outbuilding, likewise all of the gas cylinders