How not to start a bonfire

[Brad Johnson]

Well, they wanted a spectacle for Homecoming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9BSS1Nxe_g

This, ladies and gents, is why you use diesel as your starting fluid, not gasoline.

Brad

[230RN]

He cuda been kilt.

Why do you need any  accelational stuff anyhow?  You touch a match here or there or maybe both and it's in the nature of fire to spread all by itself.

You help it out, and that "spreading" effect may occur too much too soon.

[MechAg94]

Do you really think that was gasoline?  With gas, I would have expected a big fireball, but not an explosion throwing big pieces of debris all over the place.   

[WLJ]

Do you really think that was gasoline?  With gas, I would have expected a big fireball, but not an explosion throwing big pieces of debris all over the place.   

Maybe someone left the can in the pile?

[lee n. field]

yeah, how much gas did they use?

[Brad Johnson]

Do you really think that was gasoline?  With gas, I would have expected a big fireball, but not an explosion throwing big pieces of debris all over the place.   

Yeah, it was gasoline.

Pour a bunch of gasoline on a stack of wood and let it sit for a bit. If it's relatively still, or if the pile is big enough to block a air throughflow (like, say, for a bonfire), fuel vapor will permeate the entire pile, complete with plenty of air to support combustion. It's essentially a giant FAB at that point. One spark and the entire cloud of fuel vapor ignites almost instantly. That's why country folks use diesel, kerosene, or fuel oil to start fires.

Brad

[Bogie]

The vapor was also contained by what appears to have been some sort of berm. If your campfire is in a low spot, and you soak it, the gas vapor will spread out... Most of the time it doesn't cause much of a problem, because it will burn fast, but there they probably had several feet concentrated, rather than a few millimeters.

[HankB]

I know gasoline mixed with air can be an explosive mixture, but I'm still moderately surprised to see what looks like a pile of wood out in the open blow up that way.

Filing this away in my memory for future reference under "Don't do this" . . . sometimes it's better to learn from other people's mistakes, rather than by making your own.

[230RN]

Yeah, it was gasoline.

Pour a bunch of gasoline on a stack of wood and let it sit for a bit. If it's relatively still, or if the pile is big enough to block a air throughflow (like, say, for a bonfire), fuel vapor will permeate the entire pile, complete with plenty of air to support combustion. It's essentially a giant FAB at that point. One spark and the entire cloud of fuel vapor ignites almost instantly. That's why country folks use diesel, kerosene, or fuel oil to start fires.

Brad

Thank you.  Beat me to it.

Same thing happens in the cylinders of a gasoline engine, except the combustion's sudden expansion throws the pistons "out."

Same process with a potato cannon except they use hair spray or other combustibles for a fuel.

https://youtu.be/PvqMWqxYuL8 (1:43)

[Bogie]

It was the containment that did that...

[Cliffh]

I've got an area set aside for burning yard waste, about 10'x15', surrounded by corrugated sheet metal on edge.

Had a pile of debris in there one time, must have been 9' high.  It was wet, so I decided to use a small quantity of gas to get 'er going, about a cup or so.  Poured it on the pile at about 5' high on one of the long sides, stepped back & tossed in a lit wad of paper.

Blew out the corner of the surround.

DW came out the back door wondering WTF!!  (House is a good 75 yards from the pile).

Fortunately I didn't loose any hair. 

And the damn fire didn't start.  Had to use the propane weed burner to get it lit.  I still use the weed burner - every time.

Yeah, not a good idea to use gas in an enclosed area.  Those fumes will build up quick.  And release their energy even quicker.

[Cliffh]

Reminded me of in incident my cousin had.  He was working in the 2 car garage, near the open front door, using a pan of gas to clean parts.

He shouldn't have lit that cigarette.

He did loose some hair in the large fireball that shot out the front door.

[230RN]

It was the containment that did that...

I'm not clear on your meaning.

Do you mean for the pistons to move as opposed to the junk in the woodpile to get blown around?

I submit that you don't need "containment" to throw the junk around.  The sheer speed of the combustion is all the "containment" you need.

You get, say, 1000 psi from the rapid combustion on one side ot a free plank and 14 psi on the other, and the plank will move.  Rapidly.

[dogmush]

I've been known to start wood stoves with a little white gas.  It has the same vaper->boom issue as gas, so you have to know what you're doing.

You generally want accelerants with flash points above ambient temperature if you are doing something like that.  safer all around.

[Perd Hapley]

He cuda been kilt.

Why do you need any  accelational stuff anyhow?  You touch a match here or there or maybe both and it's in the nature of fire to spread all by itself.

You help it out, and that "spreading" effect may occur too much too soon.

Have you ever set fire to wood? It takes some work.

[WLJ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Yiw7_JTXY

[French G.]

I use old gas on large brush piles. I also use it on top of diesel or waste oil because I want something that burns awhile. I also light the thing with a flaming object from my max throwing range. Road flares work good, or make a torch from a branch.

[BobR]

Every year at Homecoming time we get to see new ways to try to set yourself on fire. Soon, very soon my pretties. 


bob

[Tuco]

4 parts Diesel or used motor oil : 1 part gasoline is what we were taught as a starting point for drip torches. In certain environments it is an acceptable accelerant. "Certain environments" doesn’t include homecoming bonfires or throwing matches at any volume of concentrated fumes.

[MechAg94]

Something to file away.  I have lit gas on fire and poured gas on a fire.  Never saw anything but a fireball as it lit up.   

Most all I have ever burned up is dry underbrush.  Can't remember needing gas on that.  Once it gets going, it burns good.

[230RN]

"Why do you need any  accelational stuff anyhow?  You touch a match here or there or maybe both and it's in the nature of fire to spread all by itself."

Have you ever set fire to wood? It takes some work.

"Match" isn't inclusive enough; poor choice of words on my part.  But you can consider it a metaphor for a flame thrower, I suppose.  And there's also the concept of tinder to consider.

[Nick1911]

"Match" isn't inclusive enough; poor choice of words on my part.  But you can consider it a metaphor for a flame thrower, I suppose.  And there's also the concept of tinder to consider.

I figure out where you're at, it might well work as you originally stated!

[230RN]

I figure out where you're at, it might well work as you originally stated!

Oh, yeah, colorful arid Colorado.  I cringe whenever I see a you tube with someone launching model rockets in the grass, or, the other day, a vid where they were shooting incendiaries into cinder blocks.

Or the thought of someone throwing a road flare around.  Terry cringeth sorely.

Terry, 230RN

[Bogie]

At that homecoming thing, they had a sort of berm around the whole clusterbleep... So the fumes got some height on 'em before the flare hit.

[230RN]

At that homecoming thing, they had a sort of berm around the whole clusterbleep... So the fumes got some height on 'em before the flare hit.

By "containment," I thought you meant as in a cylinder / piston, which I talked about in the immediately previous post.