Why does fire fascinate us so?

Last night as I was watching the news about all the fires taking place here in Utah. It made me think back to my childhood and remember all the times me and my best friend AOC spent lighting fires. (It is amazing to think I still consider AOC my best friend even though we have seen each other so little over the past 5 years, but that is a story for another day).

One day after school AOC and I were sitting around watching Mr. Wizard (he was our version of Bill Nye the science guy). I don't know what he was thinking when he showed us that you could put a lit match out in gasoline. I can't remember why he was showing us this, but he actually made it work. You can imagine what to the two of us started thinking. Worst of all my mom and pops were away at work so we were home alone.

We both looked at each other and it was if both lights over our heads switched on. I went to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a red plastic dixie cup (this would end up being mistake # 2, mistake #1 was this whole idea) and a book of matches. We went out to the garage and shut the door so no one could see what a mess we were getting into.

As I slowly poured the gasoline into the dixie cup we noticed the cup started to melt. AOC quickly lit the match and attempted to put it out in the pool of gasoline. By the time the match hit the gas it had created two large holes in the side of the cup. The match quickly ignited the gas and began to spread onto the floor of the garage.

We quickly looked at each other and stated to scramble to find something to put it out. I don't remember which one thought it would be a good idea to try and stamp it out with our feet (mistake #3) but this made the gas spread even further on the ground. Soon the fire had consumed all its fuel and sputtered out. I looked down and saw a huge black burn mark on the concrete. There was nothing we could do to cover it up. I don't remember what pops ended up saying to us, but in the end he was probably thinking he was lucky we didn't burn his house down.

I am sure you would think we learned our lesson but no, we were young and dumb. One day in junior high. After school we started talking about molotov cocktails. It didn't take long for us to think it would be a good idea to make one. In AOC's back yard was a small man made pond. Instead of throwing the burning bomb we thought it would be an even better idea to put it on a wood plank, push it into the middle of the pond, and shoot it with our BB guns. Maybe we did learn from our first experience with fire. We truly thought the water would contain the fire and put it out,

AOC put the molotov cocktail on the board. He lit the dirty sock that was stuffed into an old beer bottle we found. As he pushed it about 3 feet away from shore we began to fire at it. It didn't take long until it was hit. The gas pored out of the bottle and was ignited. The one thing that never crossed our minds was the fact that gas floats on water. The fire began to spread across the water straight toward the shore. Panic began to fill us. We quickly jumped the fence. AOC grabbed his parent garden hose and I grabbed the neighbors. The black smoke was starting to get thicker and thicker. AOC was running back to turn the water on as I was prepared to douse out the flames.

Luckily we were able to put it out before anyone noticed. We thought for sure we were busted. We ran across the street to my house and ran inside. Thinking back now I can't believe how dumb and lucky we were. I can only hope when I have a child he wont be as fascinated with fire as I was, and please let him be smarter then us.