Investigations of the thermal stability of detonating fuse containing 10 g pentaerythrol tetranitrate (PETN) revealed that the cord burnt under unconfinement at 403 K. Under confinement in a steel pipe or copper tube there was a partial detonation at 403 K. In order to characterize the thermal stability of PETN and pyrotechnic composition used in fuse head of electric detonators differential thermal analysis (DTA) was used.