Open fire!
A loaded handgun fired off multiple rounds inside a Virginia home after someone carelessly stored the firearm in the home’s oven.
“PLEASE DO NOT STORE GUNS OR ANYTHING ELSE IN YOUR OVEN,” the Chesterfield County Fire and EMS warned community members in a Facebook post describing the mishap on Friday.
The department said that firefighters responded to a house fire Thursday evening after the homeowner reported that the home’s oven had exploded.
Upon arrival at the residence, firefighters opened the oven and found a gun melted to the steel grates.
“It turns out, someone turned the oven on with the gun inside, the weapon heated up, and five rounds went off,” Chesterfield Fire and EMS wrote.
Luckily, no one was hurt, but Chesterfield County Fire and EMS shared that the “situation could have turned out much differently.”
A photo of the charred handgun melted into the steel grates inside the over shows that the barrel was pointed either toward the oven’s glass door or its back.
Another image shows the glass of the oven window shattered into pieces.
The department did not clarify which direction the gun was facing when it went off.
“When you place any item in the oven it is easy to forget it is there, which can lead to a fire or something worse when you turn it on,” Chesterfield County Fire and EMS wrote.
“You should also make sure to properly store your firearms. Keep them somewhere secure, like a gun safe.”
Bullets need to reach around 400 degrees before they can spontaneously discharge on their own, according to Online Texas LTC, a firearms training course.
Statistics show that up to 43% of households in the US keep loaded guns, and half of these households fail to store them in locked containers, which poses a safety risk, according to the CDC.
Gun owners should store their firearms in gun safes or lock boxes and use cable locks and trigger locks for the safest storage.
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