What's the dumbest thing you have ever done with fire?

[GraphiteZen]

Title says it all, but first:

DISCLAIMER

Children, don't play with fire!

So, I was about 16 and hanging with a buddy and his cousin who were into blackpowder rifles. It was about 12am and we were getting ready for a "Rendezvous" (gathering of muzzleloading enthusiasts). One of them comes across a full canister of old power that they felt might have drawn moisture and ideas quickly began to circulate as to how we might get rid of it... They lived right in the middle of town btw... So I see a piece of plywood they were using to cover the burn barrel with an empty 12oz Pepsi bottle sitting on the top and am hit with the greatest idea: I volunteer to fill the Pepsi bottle full of black powder, prop it up on a 2x4 and run a little trail powder the length of the plywood for a fuse and all..
Ok so how are we gonna light it off? Dude finds one of those long-neck BBQ lighters, GREAT.
So I take the typical running-in-the-other-direction-with-your-arm-extended-behind-you pose of your average idiot, light the thing off and get about a half a step away before I thought I had leveled the entire damned DRIVEWAY... Not Smart.
Here's the kicker and a real sign of the times: 10 minutes later the Sheriff shows up, not to ask us if we were playing with illegal fireworks or blowing stuff up with black power at 12 am, but to search for beer LOL!!! :dance:

 

[troutdude]

So, the question remains...were there any empties? LOL

The dumbest thing that I ever did, was too light an entire block of Black Cat fire crackers at the same time. Before I could propel them with my best pitching efforts...they simultaneously exploded in my right hand. I vividly recall thinking to myself that I may now only have one good hand...as I held it with the other one (and as shock set in).

After what seemed like an eternity; I took a deep breath and mustered the courage to peek at said throwing hand. WHEW! It was still there and intact. Second degree burns on all digits and palm; but still there!

Now, for the DUMB part. I was WAY old enough, to know better!!!

KIDS...do NOT try this!!!

 

[TTFishon]

Threw a box of 22 shells in the camp fire. yeehaw! lol

 

[troutdude]

The original episode of Dancing w/ the Stars! LOL

 

[Anyfishisfine]

My Dad was helping me fix a water pipe in the crawl space under the house by soldering it with a torch.

Right as I said to be careful of the insulation, it caught on fire and started spreading fast. We were forced to use our hands to put it out, and I burned mine up real good.

I don't think anyone has managed to get me under a house since.

 

[GraphiteZen]

Threw a box of 22 shells in the camp fire. yeehaw! lol

haha That's pretty freakin dumb!!!

 

[BobbiDollPDX]

The dumbest thing I ever did with fire was only dumb because it was really dumb (if that makes sense).

When I was a little kid (probably 6 or 7) I was convinced I could set my neighbor's tree on fire using ordinary matches. So every couple of weeks for at least 2 or 3 months, I would steal a pack of matches from the box in the kitchen and go sit on the grass and light one match after another and hold it to the base of the afore mentioned tree until it sputtered out or threatened to burn me.

I was a really smart kid so I for the life of me can't figure out where I got such a stupid idea.

 

[TTFishon]

haha That's pretty freakin dumb!!!

Yep, pretty frickin stupid!!! Nothing like gettin hit in the leg with a shell casing. lol

 

[Spydeyrch]

Well, I could give you a list of stupid things that I have done but that would take too long.

Once particular scout camp, I had brought a can of pork and beans. I forgot my fork, spoon, knife, and plate. I also forgot my can opener. I think I was like 14. So I decided to put the can in the dead center of the fire lying in the coals. time went by (like 5 mins, you need to remember, I was a 14 year old boy so 5 mins was a HUGE tiem to pay attention to a can of beans in the fire) and I forgot about the can. We played capture the flag for a few hours, then all sat around the fire for a devotional. We were like 15 boys and a few leaders. Some of the boys started poking the fire with a stick and then all of a sudden BBBBBOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!! the can exploded!!!! the boys closest to the fire about messed their pants. Beans went flying everywhere!!! Luckily no one got any shrapnel in their legs, torso, or any other body part. I went to bed that night hungry. I think that the funniest thing is that no one knew it was me that did it until like 2 years later.

Another one is that my best friend and I caught a lake/pond of fire!!

We had been playing around with gas and marbles and other things. We were around 16 or 17. We had read online how to make home-made napalm (or something very close to it) so we made it and it was AWESOME!! It burned like crazy and was extremely hard to put out, even when dousing it with water!! So that led us to want to make nitro. So we read online that by mixing gas with ******** it would create a by-product which was nitro! so we traveled all the way up to northern Vancouver from Beaverton to buy some of the ****** because it was previously banned from being sold in Oregon to anyone under 18.

So after about a 2 hours drive to and back, we were home. We mixed the ******* with the gas and it was again .... AWESOME!!!

So we got a bunch of our friends together and took off one night to a local community pond and local fishing hole. It was me, my best-friend, my younger sister, and about 5 of our other friends.

We showed them that the concoction that we had made was very volatile by filling a little dixie cup with it and then shooting the paper/wax covered dixie cup with a bb gun. The cup would ignite and explode!!!! JUST FORM A BB HITTING IT!!!!

So we had brought a model rocket. We filled one dixie cup with our nitro and then topped it off by taping another dixie cup on top of the first one. We then put the cups into the parachute chamber. We had to take out the parachute so that the cups would fit. Our thought process was a little lacking but basically we thought that when the rocket was up in the air, when the two stage rocket engine fired into the rocket to push out the parachute, it would instead light the dixie cups on fire and a huge BOOM would follow or at least it would look cool.

So we lit the rock and it took off. But there was a big wind and it blew the rocket right into the pond/lake. We were all pretty bummed that nothing happened. but then like 30 seconds later, there was a huge BOOM and the the lake was burning!!! Our nitro was floating on the water and had caught fire! It took like 2 mins before it went out but man, it was AWESOME!!!

Looking back, I am glad the rocket didn't get blown into the surrounding trees or the surrounding houses!!!! :shock::shock:

But none the less, very cool and very fun!!!

-Spydey

 

[brandon4455]

threw fireccrackers at a cop car infront of a bar with my drunk uncle..he got a ticket. (2 years ago) XD and i tried to barbecue some chicken in the woods behind my old house and started a small fire..had to run to the house and get 2 buckets of water to put it out..and last but not least i hit the side of a few cars with bottle rockets.. (accident all 3 times) don't do stuff that stupid anymore but i still do like messing with fireworks (i have issues) LOL.


brandon

 

[ChezJfrey]

After reading this thread, I've now decided I need to start building a bomb shelter, a la Christopher Walken in Blast From the Past, and hide out in it for awhile!

 

[bigsteel]

when i was younger we were sittin around the camp fire and my brother pissed me off so when he dozed off in his chair i threw a little propane bottle in the fire,,,,he jumped like micheal jordan let me tell ya

 

[Drew9870]

Lol

 

[JeannaJigs]

Five words: hand held roman candle war

 

[rippin fish lips]

Five words: hand held roman candle war

Nice one!

 

[brandon4455]

Lol

ROFL. thats awesome

 

[brandon4455]

Five words: hand held roman candle war

thats not dumb thats fun. i did that last year. you use garbage can lids as shields LOL.

 

[Raincatcher]

As a kid I was allowed to watch way too many Tarzan and Bomba shows. My cousins and I decided we needed torches to go catch crawdads in the swamp in Hermiston. :doh: We all gathered as many cat tails and brush as we could, after twisting them like we saw them do in the jungle shows we lit 'em up. About ten minutes later those torches were burning way too fast and we all got scared and threw them down...onto more dry brush. :wall: The swamp pretty much went "SSWWWOOOOOSH"!! :shock: Up in flames! My Aunt Jean was standing there with her wooden spoon when we finally got out...didn't sit comfortably for the next two weeks. Ouch, I still remember that nasty spoon, it got me quite a few more times before I learned to outsmart her. :lol: :lol:

 

[JeannaJigs]

It's dumb when you start a field fire and a shed goes up in flames....and then there were the 2nd degree burns....drinking and explosives sure is fun but not a great idea.

 

[brandon4455]

It's dumb when you start a field fire and a shed goes up in flames....and then there were the 2nd degree burns....drinking and explosives sure is fun but not a great idea.

true and ouch!. my neighbor caught our grass on fire last year almost the side of the apartments of course alcohol was envolved LOL.