Out of date flares disposal (not trousers)

[Nick2]

I have found my canister of distress flares in my garage which I had long forgotten about.

Where can I take them for safe disposal please and is it only likely to be coastal areas?

Thanks

Nick

 

[l'escargot]

Give your local police station a ring, they should take them - often the lost property office, who have a disposal form that you fill out.

 

[SkipperMarv]

From the MCA website -

Out-of-date pyrotechnics must be disposed of ashore by one of the following means:

returning them to the supplier, directly or via their local representative;
requesting a liferaft service station in the UK or overseas to accept any of the ship’s out-of-date pyrotechnics when liferafts are being sent ashore for servicing; liferaft service stations deal with the disposal of the expired pyrotechnics on a regular basis and have arrangements locally to do this;
contacting the local Coastguard or Police who will be able to arrange disposal through a military establishment;
the firing of distress signals in any situation other than distress is an offence. Expired pyrotechnics should never be used at sea for testing or practice purposes or used on land as fireworks; the chemicals may have deteriorated to cause an unpredictable reaction upon ignition and should be landed ashore as soon as possible after their date of expiry.
On no account should any line-throwing rocket be fired without the rocket line attached.

 

[Boathook]

Local police station. I took a load to a Surrey one in the spring and they did not bat an eye lid over the 2 old off shore sets.

 

[Piers]

If you call Solent Coastguard they will take them from you. When their collection is big enough, the Bomb Disposal guys collect them.

 

[paulburton44]

I let my handheld ones (not rockets) off on 5th Nov. We are 30miles inland and it was a good experience. I have never let one off before.

The smoke ones were a bit dull, but the pinpoints were very impressive and lit the whole area up.

 

[Piers]

It's good to know what happens when you let them off. At an RYA practice session, I found the stems became very hot indeed, and even when wearing gloves, the finger tip closest to the burning end caught fire! I now keep gloves in the flare pack....

Letting them off inland on Nov 5 is, I think, frowned upon, if not against the regs....(although good experience!)

 

[SkipperMarv]

We keep welding gauntlets in our flare pack too.

As to letting off distress flares on the 5th November, it is actually an offence to fire a distress flare unless it is in a distress situation.

Another forum user on the river Itchen had a paracute flare land in the cockpit of his yacht this year and it caused quite a bit of damage, the offender has been arrested I believe.

 

[paulburton44]

I didn't fire a distress rocket flare....I fired handheld pinpoint flares...

And yes we wore gloves.....the canister was glowing red by the time it had burnt out. Some needed a very hard bang to get them to go. I've seen Ellen setting flares off, she wasn't arrested..

 

[l'escargot]

[ QUOTE ]
If you call Solent Coastguard they will take them from you...

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think Solent Coastguard operate much in Buckinghamshire. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[No Regrets]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you call Solent Coastguard they will take them from you...

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think Solent Coastguard operate much in Buckinghamshire. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]


/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Nick2]

Ah that explains why I never seem to be able to pick them up on the VHF !!