How to safely dispose of an old hand held flare ?

[bilmo-p5]

I don't understand all the eagerness to set it off. 'Ooh, it's a flare, set it off. I would'.

Red 'Pinpoint' handhelds are nothing particularly spectacular. They burn with a vigourous bright red light for at least a minute & that's it! After the first 10 seconds all concerned would be bored s##tless with it. Ring the Fire Brigade and they might send a shiny red fire engine round for it. They might not, but whatever will be a sight more exciting than watching an old flare burn out.

 

[santaman2000]

I see the early responses covered the obvious; turn it in. To one of these three agencies:
-Coast Guard
-Police
-Fire Brigade

My best instincts tell me that the first two will only turn around and take it to the fire brigade anyway. After all, pyrotechnics are mostly within their purview.

 

[Paul_B]

Well as someone who has never seen a flare go off there is some level of curiosity there. You have to try things out, if safely done of course.

Toddy - if you want I can collect it and hand it in for you...honest!!

 

[ozzy1977]

I used to work for a life raft servicing company and had to dispose of several hundred every year. We would fill up our transit and take them back to Pains-Wessex who make most of the marine pyros, their factory is on Salsbury plain, they would then hand them over to their neighbours (M.O.D) who would take them out on to the range for target practice and bomb disposal training. Sadly never got to see several tons go up.
For the public all coast gard stations will take them from you, the police should do like-wise, but check to see if you need to go to a fire arms station first, also marine chandlers normally collect them.

I have seen some pyros in such a state that they have started breaking down leaking nasty chemicals, also one other thing to be aware of is that the firing mechanism for hand held flares is a .22 blank cartridge, which when set off shoots its flame up the hollow core of the pyro causing the top to ignite and burn down towards the handle, burning at well over 1000*C water will not put it out, but they do make good bonfire starters. A friend who I used to work with used to run the village bonfire night, him and his dad would set of hand held flares around the perimeter of the fire alternating red with white ones, which looked realy nice.

Cheers

Chris

 

[Llwyd]

It is a bit anticlimactic how they dispose of old stuff. My uncle was a demolition guy and would dispose of flares, caps and dynamite by sticking a bunch in an old bale of damp hay and setting the thing on fire.

As kids we would watch for the boom but it never happened. Fortunately he would occasionally do an old car or piano for sport before he retired. Well the piano was an accident just before retirement.

 

[Toddy]

Thank you one and all (including the pms )

I think my best option is to phone the local police station and ask which of the stations (or fire stations) accepts these things for disposal. Saves me having to trail it into town to a chandlers.

Failing that, Son1 has a friend who makes fireworks as a hobby....though to be honest, the thought of Son1 making fireworks gives me conniption fits .....I'm being good and not nagging or fretting to him; he's a grown man and if he wants to blow up the world, why should he listen to his Mum ? and comments about Mum playing with firepoi don't deflect explosive reactions

You know what's going to happen, don't you ? I'll get rid of this thing and then someone'll want/need it

atb,
Mary

 

[Wayland]

There is some value in waiting till fireworks night and setting it off.

Unless you have seen one of these flares in action you do not really know how visible it will be. Most are much less spectacular than you might expect.

For example, there is not much point setting off a pen flare and hoping it will be visible from five miles away. It is much better to save it until a rescue party is within a sensible range and then using it.

If you try one out you will know what that sensible range is.

 

[WoodMan]

There is a lot of conflicting advice here, much of it well out of date.

This flare is what is known as a TEP (Time Expired Pyrotecnic), whilst most are in good condition and will work fine and be safe to store and transport, some are not and can be extreemly hazzardous particularly those containing white phosphous. You should not take it anywhere without first contacting your nearest HM Coastguard Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre who will advise you when and where to take it for disposal. Definetly do not leave it on a Coastguard Station or Police station doorstep, I know that this is common sense but it happens all the time. When this happens, it has to be (or at least should be) treated as unexploded ordnance and a RN, RAF or RLC EOD team will be tasked to remove it. I dread to think what this costs.

In England, all ordnance that is 'found' above the high water mark is the domain of the Police, below the high water mark it comes under the jurastiction of HM Coastguard but this is a bit irelevant as they will both request the advice/attendance of the duty EOD team. The turf war only starts when deciding who has to stand and guard the item for several hours until the EOD boys arrive!

 

[bilmo-p5]

There is some value in waiting till fireworks night and setting it off.

Unless you have seen one of these flares in action you do not really know how visible it will be. Most are much less spectacular than you might expect.

For example, there is not much point setting off a pen flare and hoping it will be visible from five miles away. It is much better to save it until a rescue party is within a sensible range and then using it.

If you try one out you will know what that sensible range is.

So, are you suggesting that Toddy sets off a pyrotechnic which is 14 years past its replacement date just to see how bright it is. It may be just fine. On the other hand, if it is faulty and malfunctions causing injury, she has little comeback given that she knew how out of date it was and had been offered numerous suggestions on these pages re. its safe disposal.

If she or anyone else wants to know how bright one of these things is, there's any number of vids of them in action on Youtube. Furthermore, marine pyrotechnics are subject to a number of minimum requirements, one of which is that a hand flare shall, "burn uniformly with an average luminous intensity of not less than 15,000 candela;". This is pretty bright. To put it into context, the Polystinger LED HAZ-LO torch on this page boasts, "15,000 candela peak beam intensity, 130 Lumens," which makes it some bright torch. The Gravelly Shoal lighthouse here has a 15000 candela light which can be seen 11 miles away.

 

[Wayland]

Yes, I know Mary well enough to know she has a brain and can make her own risk assessments.

Some of us grew up in a world where we didn't have some health and safety committee looking over our shoulder every minute of the day and night but we still managed to survive.

I was issued pyrotechnics older than that on a regular basis and the worst that ever happened was a slow fuse that was obviously a bit damp.

 

[rik_uk3]

Send it to me Mary.

 

[Toddy]

Richard, if I thought the post man wouldn't object you'd be more than welcome to it

cheers,
M

 

[rik_uk3]

I'd have to let it off to be honest, its the stovie/pyromaniac in my character I suppose. Take it well and truly outdoors, don stout leather gloves and fire it.