Fire in the hole! 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I really should have known better than to light the match.
As a child, I had a strange fascination with fire, as did most kids. One of my favorite stunts was to turn a coke bottle into a blowtorch by filling it with lighter fluid gas from lighter, then igniting it with a large "Whoosh". That was until the day I got a strange idea to do the same with an empty gallon milk jug. Of course, lighter fluid just wouldn’t do. I decided that a torch of this magnitude needed gasoline. I poured about a quart of gas into the old milk jug and poured it back into my gas can. Then, while standing over the jug, I dropped a lite match in and was rewarded with the biggest, brightest blue flame ever and a giant "WHOOSH! Notice above that I had said I was standing over the jug? It took two months for my eyelashes and eyebrows to grow back.
I learned my lesson, or I thought I did. Fast-forward many years. I was married and had 3 kids. One cold night, our gas furnace went out. Very sleepily, I went to re-light the furnace. I was so tired, I forgot to vent the burning chamber first, but instead struck the match and lowered it into the furnace (Pilot light was inside the burn chamber (Stupid design really)).
I'm really lucky that the furnace didn't explode outright. Instead, a giant flame "WHOOSHED" out the opening. I ended up with flash burns over most of my body and most of the hair on my arms and legs gone. I never lite that heater again, we went all electric.
Now, my son is 11 and he has this strange fascination with fire...
Submitted on 06/04/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
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