Explosions happen... real Fast

Back in the day, when timber was still king in Southern Oregon, having a fire at one of the local lumber mills was a big deal. If the pitch-laden mill were allowed to burn down, hundreds of men would be put out of work and our small band of firefighting volunteers would be looked upon with hostile scorn by the entire community.


... the late night mill fire was beginning to throw off some pretty good heat and sparks, as we quickly advanced our hose lines towards the hot fire burning under the mill out-feed chain. The firefighters knew they either had to put a stop to this beast right then or deal with the shame of failure afterwards. I pressed forward hard pulling my heavy hose line towards the fiery beast when suddenly, not too far beside me, I heard, KA-BOOM and felt the searing flash of heat. We wear those fire resistant turn outs for a reason. As I felt the compression come off the blast, I turned just in time to watch as a gas-acetylene tank rocketed up into the sky. With this newly-perceived danger getting my full attention, I watched as the cylindrical tank flipped end over end spewing hot flames as it propelled its self aloft. I got really concerned when I could no longer see the tank anymore—it had either been launched out of my eye sight or the propelling gases had burned off and it was returning to earth, quickly.

Instantly, I got a flashback to something that had always intrigued me— all the films I'd seen where the gunmen shoot wildly straight up over their heads celebrating some wondrous event, seemingly unconcerned about where all that hot lead would eventually fall. That thought snapped me back into reality because I was definitely concerned about where all the pieces of that exploded acetylene tank would fall. Still unable to see the tank through the smoke and darkness, I quickly ducked under a nearby roof overhang hoping that would be enough protection to deflect the shrapnel and tank shell enough to miss me. Suddenly without warning, a few feet away from me, in the nearby paved lumber stacking area, I hear  BOING… BOIng… Bong… bong as the tank landed and bounced several times as the sound echoed loudly across the fire ground. With that immediate concern now resolved, my concentration shot back to the real task at hand—getting the fiery beast under control. The odd thing about this single life-threatening event is that it all occurred in less than a ten second span of a two hour long fire fight. Firefighters deal with these sorts of dangers on a regular basis.  Hazards like this is what makes for a good story later on back at the fire station. 

We finally did get the stubborn fire snuffed out before too much damage had actually occurred to the mill—saving us all from sure humiliation from our community.