The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Some years ago I was talking to a local fire officer and mentioned the black powder store. His reaction was:"does your wife use hair spray from an aerosol?". I confirmed that she did."Much greater risk of fire or explosion than your black powder box" was the reaction.
Fred

FredB wrote:The standards for the black powder box were developed for the Health & Safety authority, not the police. The box should not be chained down, so that, in the event of a fire, it can quicky be carried out. The police do not seem to understand this and will ask for it to be fixed.
Fred

Yep - that's what I was told to do by my FLO; I thought it seemed daft. If my home goes up in flames, I don't want to be faffing around with keys and padlocks - and I don't suppose the firemen would be happy dealing with a fire which had a boxful of black powder in the middle of it, either.
Jack

Mdwysc wrote:I keep it in my workshop with the other powders at the bottom of the garden. it's not coming into the house, if I do have a fire I don't want that bloody thing in the house!

If I had a garden, I'd do the same.

I was tickled by your resume:

Nerf pistol reloading expert
Super soaker long distance world champion
cap pistol quick draw 56 times world champion
pea shooter 15 yards indoor Homewood Comp 1981 undefeated middleweight title holder

clapclap
Jack

The HSE Guidance for the storage of shooter's powder is here, including the box design, page 100 onwards:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/l150.pdf

This document is also very interesting and should be read by everybody:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr991.pdf

And for security, page 18:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l151.pdf

Many thanks for posting those links, Ian - and, after having read the text and studied all the photographs showing a suitable box, I can find no mention of any requirement for the box to be chained to the wall / floor, nor do any of the illustrations show any attachment to the box by which it could be chained to anything.

I'll do some more digging through what I have, and see if I can find a definitive answer.

Cheers,
Jack

The security guidance document above is the definitive answer.

Regulation 30 of ER2014 says in part:

(1) Any person who manufactures, stores or keeps explosives must take all
appropriate precautions for preventing unauthorised persons having access to—
(a) the places where those explosives are manufactured, stored or kept; or
(b) the explosives.

The guidance below it is clear, page 15 onwards.

Security is the responsibility of the certificate holder. How you comply with regulation 30 is up to you. But if it all went pear shaped you would need to prove to a court that what you did was sufficient. I believe I can.

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Of course if you don't do what the FEO demands they may class you as a person unfit to hold a firearms certificate or SGC and refuse you. That then results in nasty court cases.

Far easier, in this case, to chain up the box. I have run a length of light chain from the hasp of the padlock to a heavy posidrive screw into the floor. Undo the padlock and the box is open and free to move if I wish. With the head of the screw drilled out so a screwdriver can't grip, it meets the police requirements for storage of firearms in that it needs more than 'common household tools' to remove the box.