I know that back in the days of the Branch Davidian massacre, the FBI refused to send in their men because they were worried the intense heat from the fires would cook off their flashbangs. What kind of damage would a flashbang do on a human body? I know it would probably cauterize the wound it created, but what kind of penetration are we talking here?

The Flashbang is designed to let the blast and light out of the container and not to generate any shrapnels.

The grenade produce a 1 million candela light flash and a blast of 170 to 180 decibels. They affect your body suddenly, but do not leave any damages of lasting character. The flash light makes the eye to loose forcus for about 5 to 10 seconds and the blast affects the semicircular canals of the ear, making it hard to maintain balance.

The Flashbang we used contained ammonium (perchlorate(?)) and magnesium which can cause burns to exposed surfaces of the skin (in some cases).

I cannot think of any penetration damages by the Flashbang, though it might be possible in case of manufacturing failure.

Yes, that's good, but what would happen if a flashbang went off while it was right on you.

Originally Posted by major liability

Yes, that's good, but what would happen if a flashbang went off while it was right on you.

The flashbangs I used had a small hole in the base of the grenade to act as a pressure release point. I would expect some major burns IF the pressure release hole was aimed in the right direction ... any charge that puts out the noise and light flash, burn quite hotly and could do serious burn damage.

Of course it could do severe damage. Why do you ask?

technical thing for something I was writing. I was wondering if we had ironed that caveat out of the various designs since 1980.

Originally Posted by deerslayer

technical thing for something I was writing. I was wondering if we had ironed that caveat out of the various designs since 1980.

Caveat????? What do you expect?????

Anything which goes bang with a loud noise and with a bright flash of white light isn't a toy ... it's ordnance and ordnance can do harm.........

I was just curious about the capacity for burning human flesh is all. I had to make sure that what I've written is technically correct. Of course, the wounds would probably cauterize extremely quickly.

An explosion results in the production of hot gas. Hot gas must be vented from the object otherwise it will explode. The primary words here are "hot" and "gas". They burn people.

Fire bad.
Fire burn Garth.
Garth not like fire.