Out of Date Flares and MRCC Response

[Iain C]

Living in Warwickshire (about as far from the salty stuff as you can get!) I set mine off on bonfire night last year.

I have to say a very, very useful experience. For example, in the panic of a distress situation in the pitch black, you take to the liferaft, take the caps off, and drop the flare. You pick it up again, and feel the firing cord hanging out the bottom of the tube. You hold your arm out the raft, and pull it, right?

Congratulations. You've just fired a flare upside down into the side of your raft. Yep, the firing cords came out the TOP of several of my TEPs.

I would never have known that without firing them!

 

[pyrojames]

Feel free to let off hand helds at bonfire night but please do not let off parachutes. Unlike fireworks, they are not designed to extinguish before they land and are likey to start fires when they touch down.

I am sure any thatched property owners will be well aware of the dangers of sparks falling out of the sky!

 

[Cantata]

Perhaps worth explaining the practicalities from the CG point of view. I'm on a local CG team so not one of the full-timers at a MRCC.
Once upon a time, local teams could take TEPs. We had basic storage facilities at our stations. From there they were taken to the nearest MRCC. And from there, Navy bomb disposal would come round periodically and take them all away. Somewhere. All of this was done under no obligation, at taxpayers' cost.
Rules and regs (including a new Act of Parliament a few years ago) relating to transporting the things by road, and storing them, changed drastically. This resulted in the MCA realising that the arrangements at that time would break the new regulations. Hence local teams were not allowed to take them any more, and the new arrangement where the public could take them by prior arrangement to one of the points on 'the list' came into being. Even they will respond with a 'no' to your request if their storage is full, or if there is not a trained officer available.
In addition, CGs (volunteers like me, and full-time MRCC staff) were not allowed to touch the things unless we'd been trained in handling and storage (no doubt the incident a few years ago when a faulty hand-held flare nearly killed someone has a lot to do with it). Local teams are now equipped to handle them but this is only in case we encounter abandoned flares e.g. on the beach. But the hoops we then have to jump through (at taxpayers' cost) to collect and transport them are, well, unbelievable really, incredibly time-consuming and complicated. So please don't leave 'em anywhere where we would have to deal with them!
So that's where we are. I'm just explaining it, not trying to defend it.
If anyone needs to take responsibility it's probably the manufacturers IMHO but I dare say anything they did would be reflected in increased cost of the things in the first place.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

I've never bothered.

I know that some will throw their arms up in horror but the few out of date flares which I have had to dispose of I've used, well inland, open countryside etc etc, around November 5th or New Year.

Me too. Only thing I havent yet tried is getting rid of parachute flares - the handhelds flares and smokes are no problem.

 

[webcraft]

.
So how much risk is there in setting off very old hh flares? Bearing in mind that someone was almost killed demonstrating how to do it not long ago . . .

I ask as bonfire night is coming up and I am fed up with having a pile of mouldering explosives in my shed.

- W

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Is anyone else experiencing a reluctance on behalf of an MRCC to assist in the disposal of flares? .....

In the months since you made the OP I can't say I have noticed. Its a chore now so I have a pile in my workshop. I can't be bothered with the hassle of appointments, long travel. It was all so convenient before.

 

[pappaecho]

In the good old days when the Royal Engineers were based in Chattenden, we used to have a bumper Guy Fawkes display, and included out of date pyrotechnics including those from the REYC.
A survey of such out of date stuff. 99% worked perfectly.
Looks like my old ones are destined for the firework display. I live in Lee on Solent but no go at the CG in Lee.

 

[Cantata]

.
So how much risk is there in setting off very old hh flares? Bearing in mind that someone was almost killed demonstrating how to do it not long ago . . . .... - W

I know the chap concerned and as far as I recall, it was not a TEP, it was in date.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Living in Warwickshire (about as far from the salty stuff as you can get!) I set mine off on bonfire night last year.

I have to say a very, very useful experience. For example, in the panic of a distress situation in the pitch black, you take to the liferaft, take the caps off, and drop the flare. You pick it up again, and feel the firing cord hanging out the bottom of the tube. You hold your arm out the raft, and pull it, right?

Congratulations. You've just fired a flare upside down into the side of your raft. Yep, the firing cords came out the TOP of several of my TEPs.

I would never have known that without firing them!

I tried firing the 'twist & bang down hard type - Pains?' Impossible to do in an inflatable and difficult on a hard surface, in fact my wife couldn't do it! All mine are the ones where you unscrew the base, a cord with a weight drops down and you yank hard. Seem to work on bonfire night! I do confess to letting off a parachute flare many years ago on bonfire night...... Impressive.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

.... So how much risk is there in setting off very old hh flares?

The risk of personal injury or death is always present when using a pyrotechnic. The probability of that risk will be very low for devices stored correctly and in date, increasing of course, as they get older and if storage conditions are not optimum. Considering the accident with the instructor and his guts, with that knowledge its not something I would do now.

The safest job is the one you don't do.

 

[concentrik]

.

I took 32 TEPs (yes, 32) to Brixham CG last week and they barely lifted an eyebrow.... handheld, parachutes and one they'd never seen before, all 2006 vintage. I argued with myself about keeping some as 'back-up' but decided (uncharacteristically) to do as I've been told.

 

[Lady Campanula]

if anyone has any out of date flares i'll take them off your hands for free, i live in lewes, near brighton.

I have half-a-dozen. Shall I just post them to you....

 

[Tintin]

No problem at Falmouth CG with some 94 vintage parachute flares.