Halloween “Boom”fire

This past Saturday, despite the light covering of snow on the ground, the team headed out to a nearby farm for our second annual Halloween bonfire.  This tradition began last year when Sonny decided to surprise the team with a taste of home.  He arranged a place to go, the vehicle to take us there, and the food to eat (hot dogs & s’mores).  When asked if we were interested in repeating the outing, we were all up for it.  Who would turn down the irresistible combination of good food, friends, and fire?

We were at a new location this year, which was even more picturesque than the previous year’s.  I immediately was drawn to the lightly dusted fields and fall weeds, which were looking quite picturesque in the dusk lighting.

I returned just as the fire was getting started.  We didn’t start the fire (please tell me you’re singing right now), nor choose its location…an important bit of information for later on.

We were a year older and a year wiser than the last time, and made great strides on our fire cooking techniques.  Mark made himself a fire shield.

And the rest of us gathered around a fire pit made from the hot coals.  This set-up was a vast improvement on trying to stay crouched close enough to the large fire to cook your hot dog, but not so close that you burn your eyebrows off.  I must say, there are some brilliant minds on this team.

After cooking and consuming our fill of dogs & s’mores, the team settled in around the fire.  It was a chilly night, which made us move in all the closer.  A few songs, many from such classics as the Lion King and Little Mermaid, were sung.  It was a serene setting with stars up above, and open country around us.

That is, it was serene until we were jolted into speedy reflexive action at the sound of a huge BOOM and the sight of the fire sky-rocketing into the night sky.  I’ve never seen our team move so fast.  Stools clattered to the ground as we all jumped back at least ten feet.  After a few moments of stunned silence came the chorus of “Is everyone ok?”.  We soon discovered Mark had been hit in the head by a flying log, but he was no worse for wear.  Jennifer had gotten hit in the back of her neck by an ember, but didn’t seem too bothered (this is the lady that hiked long distances after severely breaking her arm falling off an elephant).  Everyone else was unharmed, so we moved on to figuring out what on earth had happened.  One of the “uncles” who had been helping with the fire came to examine the damage, and explained that the concrete had exploded.  Something about cold air and a hot fire and things expanding…something beyond my understanding.  But sure enough, there was a gaping hole in the concrete, and there were large pieces of concrete scattered around.

With the reassurance that it couldn’t happen again (something about pressure being released), we moved back in closer to the fire to chase away the chills.  We were thankful to be injury free, and already chuckling about the new story just added to the team lore.  There are more pictures up on flickr.