JEllwanger
Seaman
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2001
- Messages
- 56
Arrived the night before to do some fishing at a lake about 1.5 hours out of Chicago. Sometime in March, so the night air had quite a chill to it. Being the invincible 20 yr olds we were we didn't think to compensate for the cold with say, PROPER CLOTHING, and decided we had to build a fire instead. Took about an hour to gather a small pile of scrap wood that wouldn't generate enough heat to char a marshmallow and got ready to light it. My, now rather tipsy, friend decided we had to make sure the fire lit on the first try and doused it with about half my can of white gas. Since the temp was around 40 and the wind was calm we were unaware of the carpet of gas fumes that was spreading out from the fire pit. I was sitting about 25 ft away on the picnic bench when he dropped the match. He was instantly enguled in a pillar of flame. A blue layer of flame spread out along the ground wherever the fumes had traveled, including around my feet and up the side of the tent. Of course, the event seemed to last forever, but really was over in seconds. I got my butt about halfway off the bench to see if he was OK. By then the flames had subsided and I could see him standing there sort of shocked. About 2 seconds after that he lets out a little "Arghhhh!" and jumps back about 2 feet a little less hairy than when he started. Then the laughter started.
