Story/Photos by Jo. L. Keener
Fire alarm dispatched to a Structure fire on Denai Street at 13:20 and second transmission advised that there was live ammunition and gunpowder in the home.
First in Engine 72's arrived to the sound of gunfire as the garage was totally involved. Inside the garage the owner had been reloading and had a primer detonate and catch nearby gunpowder on fire. The fire spread rapidly and quickly engulfed the garage and nearby vehicles, and at the same time, starting to burn more than 100,000 rounds of mostly machine gun ammunition stored in the homes garage.
Firefighters hampered by the lack of water in the subdivision, and the exploding ammunition took a defensive posture and protected exposures and extinguished near by grass fires. When the explosions stopped they moved in to extinguish what they could.
The owner Jim Haak was a gun enthusiast and also had a class three federal license for
Machine guns and old collectables. Haak suffered burns on his hands in trying to save some of the firearms, like a 1927 Thompson machine gun valued at $25,000.
The fire scene was turned over to Yavapai County Sheriff's office for any investigation, however I was told, and "any problems the home owner will face are going to be civil liability"
