Gunsmithing Guns in a Fire

[Trapshooter12]

A guy at work had his house catch on fire Monday. He says the Guns were three rooms away from the fire and most everything has smoke damage.
He said the Barrels on all of his Guns rusted afterwords. He said the Bores all look good. Is there any concerns or a reason why the Barrles rusted?

 

[ArmyJerry]

Homeowners should replace them, I would just ditch them

 

[med17]

Did the Fire Dept. get them wet? Some of the foam they use is pretty corrosive. Bought a pistol from a fire once. Fire didn't hurt it, but the foam did.

 

[Turd in the Pool]

A guy at work had his house catch on fire Monday. He says the Guns were three rooms away from the fire and most everything has smoke damage.
He said the Barrels on all of his Guns rusted afterwords. He said the Bores all look good. Is there any concerns or a reason why the Barrles rusted?

The smoke has acids in it. Throw a little steam on it from the firefighters and you have a corrosion factory.

 

[geargrinder]

Homeowners should replace them, I would just ditch them

No it won't. Homeowners usually have small limits on "valuables". Even then, what is covered, is only paid at a depreciated amount.

 

[sgtsmmiii]

A guy at work had his house catch on fire Monday. He says the Guns were three rooms away from the fire and most everything has smoke damage.
He said the Barrels on all of his Guns rusted afterwords. He said the Bores all look good. Is there any concerns or a reason why the Barrles rusted?

I had a catastrophic house fire and explosion fueled by a propane gas leak 2 years ago. The fire got my rifles and handguns hot, and then the Fire Department's mist nozzles trying to put it out caused them to flash rust. Not heavy rust, just an overall fine rust that had to be removed. In some cases, it did not even mar the blue ( although in others, it caused "spots" of missing bluing ). He's right, though, the smoke damage was the worst and hardest to remove and fix. I think my heavy smoke damage was caused by burning fiberglass insulation and other plastic type materials. It was ugly.

 

[sgtsmmiii]

That's just the Man Room portion ( only pics I had handy ). The rest of the house was much worse.

 

[218bee]

dang...my condolences to your buddy. I'm a Firefighter and not much is safe in a fire where multiple rooms are going at once......many things going on..Chemicals burning, much water being sprayed, thick smoke & other byproducts of the fire that goes everywhere...I would agree with the above posters that the smoke played a part in the guns rusting.

 

[ArmyJerry]

Hope everyone got out, things can be replaced, lives cant.

 

[usafabrad]

What would you guys reccomend for component storage? Not sure i can afford one of the yellow "Flammable" lockers.

 

[jbjh]

Depending on quantities, you could buy cheap "fire safes" and store flammables in there. Craigslist, Goodwill, garage sales.

 

[BALLISTIC]

Create your own 'Firebox'. At least two layers of 5/8" X rated drywall per side/wall, and put your toys inside. This will provide minimum 2 hours of fire protection. If the fire is not out in two hours, then your valuables are trash.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

My Brother's home went through that years ago. The bluing was crapped and the stocks got some surface char. He sanded, rechecked, and refinished the stocks, bought an entire Oxpho Blue hot bluing setup and redid the metal. The rifles outlived him, and my other Brother and our kids still shoot them.

Fire can be destructive, but a lot of that destruction can be simply cosmetic. This is only one anecdotal example, and caution should be your first consideration. By all means, hot handloads should be permanently removed from those firearms' menus.

It was that example that turned me off on fire protective safes. Too unwieldy, too expensive, and too small inside to justify that expense.'

My preference is for a "fire-room". A decent sized closet, with multiple layers of drywall (don't forget the floor and ceiling), with steel gun cabinets inside for access protection, makes a better approach IMHO. I have often heard that those pricey gun safes have drywall inside their shells as their primary means of heat-proofing, anyway.

Greg