It is time to once again delve into the past and recall yet another adventure that I had, but aside from nearly being killed by a train (especially on one occasion), this probably has to count as the most stupid thing I have ever done. Having said that, another memory trawl might just bring up another candidate - time will tell.

Let me set the scene...

It was 5 November 1995 and I was in Rreshen in Albania. The date is significant, because it marks an occasion in England, known as Bonfire Night, Firework Night or Guy Fawkes' Night. It commemorates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, a conspiracy to overthrow the king and blow up Parliament. While the details of the history are not really relevant to this post the end was that Guy Fawkes', was duly executed and burned as a result of the attempted coup. 

While not a fully blown holiday, the evening is associated with having a bonfire and the burning of an effigy (simply called "The Guy" - as in Guy Fawkes) atop of it. This is accompanied by a firework display and food. When I was a child many homes had their own private parties, but the trend has increasingly moved to larger more organised commercial displays, with home parties widely being discouraged. There is also greater awareness now of the effects such parties have on both wild animals and domesticated animals - and especially pets.

However, I look back on such occasions with a lot of nostalgia.

Bringing things forwards to 1995, I was delighted when Tim suggested having our own firework party and maybe a week or ten days earlier I started building the actual bonfire. In the end it was about 7ft (>2m) with a diameter of about 10ft (3m) across. Predominantly made up of old bits of wood and rubbish I had also kind of wrapped the outside layer with a lot of damp plywood boarding. Fully aware it was wet, I thought that it would steam off from the inner heat of the fire once set before burning. To complete the fire, I added the Guy, which i had made, to the top of the fire, and even sat him on an old broken wooden chair. Finally, I cordoned off the fire with some rope and posts, some 20ft (6m) from the outer edges of the fire.

I was always a bit of a pyromaniac and understood how fire works. It turned out that there was a bit of serendipity in my choice to build the fire this way, but I will get to that in due time. Elsewhere other members of the team were busy preparing (a lot of) food and other things because we had made an open invite to the community with no idea how many would come.

The 5th November dawned misty and damp and it soon started raining. I was concerned that the weather would force us to cancel our plans and I really doubted whether I would be able to get the fire going at all. It did stop raining mid-afternoon and then a couple of hours later people started arriving. I think in the end about 200 people came, but I honestly can't remember.

It was time to light the fire and feeling far less than optimistic I took some matches and dry paper out to the pile of sodden wood. I stuffed the paper inside in several places and then went round lighting it. The paper soon burnt up of course, but then the wood inside also took hold. It turned out that all of that plywood I had used and formed a protective skin around the innards of the fire and kept it dry. Sure enough the plywood sheets soon started steaming but because this kept much of the heat inside it effectively turned it into a furnace.

This was the moment when I started to worry about what I had done while preparing the fire and especially because the Albanians were pretty much ignoring the safety cordon and going as close to the fire as they could get. It was now kicking off some serious heat.

Then suddenly it happened.

There was a massive BOOM and a whole load of debris went flying vertically into the air, as did a fireball, before bringing everything back down into the heart of the fire.

Tim ran from the food area and asked me with some urgency what it was. I told him meekly that I thought it was a plastic bottle.

But I knew the truth and the truth my friends is the most stupid thing I have ever done in my life. You see, when I was preparing the fire I put a full camping gas bottle right at the bottom and in the middle before building the actual fire all around it. I don't know about nowadays, but there were readily available several kinds of gas bottle, the first two, relatively small, were lightweight and (I think) made of very thin aluminium. It was the larger of these two bottles that I had placed in the fire.

 

It looked something like the reddish orange one, but was blue in colour.

The only thing I will say in my defence was that I did shore up the bottle with some larger staked bits of wood that i had pushed into the ground. This, I reasoned was why the explosion was vertical and not lateral. Had it been lateral there could have been a disastrous human cost.

And that my friends is almost certainly the most stupid thing I have ever done in my life.

As always stay safe and well my friends.