Could an old ammo box be used as an expired Flare storage in my shed? Any thoughts?

[PlanB]

There was a horrendous thread on here some years back, which I can't now find, about someone who suffered life threatening injuries from an exploding flare.
You wouldn't get me keeping them in the house or my shed.

 

[Graham376]

There was a horrendous thread on here some years back, which I can't now find, about someone who suffered life threatening injuries from an exploding flare.
You wouldn't get me keeping them in the house or my shed.

How many cases of them having spontaneously exploding have you ever heard about? Having had welding gasses, propane cylinders, spare petrol in cans, thinners, paints and solvents in my domestic garage for most of my adult life, I don't see flares as a risk. More likely for a modern car to set on fire with electrics fault!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

There was a horrendous thread on here some years back, which I can't now find, about someone who suffered life threatening injuries from an exploding flare.
You wouldn't get me keeping them in the house or my shed.

If I remember correctly it was someone demonstrating how to use flares using OOD flares and a parachute flare as you say exploded in his hand.

 

[capnsensible]

https://www.orionsignals.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/820.pdf

Some may find this of interest. Pyros are explosive hazcat 1.4.

 

[Minerva]

See those bits marked on your charts as "Explosives dumping ground" - put your flares in a net bag alongside a couple of bricks and toss over the side to join the MOD's explosives already there. Job jobbed.

 

[SaltIre]

There was a horrendous thread on here some years back, which I can't now find, about someone who suffered life threatening injuries from an exploding flare.
You wouldn't get me keeping them in the house or my shed.

Indeed. I think the flare went into his abdomen...

Edit:
Apologies - it caused serious injury to his hand/arm and went through his abdomen and tried to exit via his back.
https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?threads/update-re-flare-accident-not-for-squeamish-long-post.85660/

 

[Stemar]

I've seen a few old flares in my time, but I've never heard of one going off without some help (Are there any cases?). Going back to the OP's question, My recollection of ammunition boxes is that they're made of steel, with pretty solid clips to keep them shut. For that reason, I reckon such a box would be ideal for storing them. Best not to have them, of course, but that isn't always an option, at least in the short term, for those of us who want to dispose of them responsibly. So OP's stuck with his flares, and a metal box will protect them from the hazards - sparks/impact, etc of a mancave/workshop better than most alternatives.

Yes, there is enough explosive to do damage in flares, but (no expert) I doubt there's enough in an offshore pack to reduce an ammunition box to shrapnel. It's gunpowder, not nitro-glycerine, and the box will certainly keep the projectile in should a parachute flare go off, and the only time that's a significant risk is when the shed's burning down anyway, so no one will be getting too close - a gas blowlamp on the shelf is a far greater hazard.

 

[penberth3]

I've seen a few old flares in my time, but I've never heard of one going off without some help (Are there any cases?). Going back to the OP's question, My recollection of ammunition boxes is that they're made of steel, with pretty solid clips to keep them shut. For that reason, I reckon such a box would be ideal for storing them.......

No, it wouldn't be ideal. If the shed catches fire the sealed metal box means you have a bomb.

 

[capnsensible]

What happens if the shed doesn't catch fire?

 

[oldmanofthehills]

No, it wouldn't be ideal. If the shed catches fire the sealed metal box means you have a bomb.

They are slow burning compounds except for the parachute flare rocket. I think it would be hard to get any of them to explode anything except in a highly sealed container. I doubt the OP was planning to seal up the ammo box to that extent - just dont latch lid maybe. Mine are in old ammo box some distance from the house, and its the gas cylinders in or behind the Navigators garden shed that worry me both due to relative nearness and known explosive nature if heated.

I am not much worried if top dumping shed burns down, but it wont be due to spontaneous combustion of old flares. None are parachute flares as disposed of those on exchange basis last time I bough a flare pack. OOD parachute flares should never be used even for training.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I think I have told this story before. I have a good friend that had some out of date flares and on a particularly windy bonfire night let of a parachute flare and for whatever reason it failed to make any significant hight and ended up on the roof of a wooden garden shed and set it ablaze we shot off into the house and later heard the sound of a fire engine. It was the talk of the village and blamed on a stray firework as no-one else had seen the flare.
The shed was burnt to the ground ?

 

[Stemar]

No, it wouldn't be ideal. If the shed catches fire the sealed metal box means you have a bomb.

I don't think so. Gunpowder burns fairly slowly - whoosh, rather than bang, even with the most explosive black powder mix, which flares aren't. Yes, you can get a bang if it's tightly confined, but an ammo box isn't that tight a confinement, and it's a long way from airtight The excess pressure would leak out. It MIGHT get enough to distort the lid, but TBH, I very much doubt a few flares would do that. What the box would do is keep the projectile bit of a parachute flare from escaping and thumping some unfortunate fireman