We had just went in for the night when we heard/felt a large explosion. There had been a good size rock in under the camp fire. The rock exploded and red hot coals went everywhere. We now have burn holes all over our canopy, rug, all of the chairs are ruined. There is a pretty good size dent in our Travel trailer where a 10# piece of firewood hit it. And a few dime size scuffs on my truck.


10 minutes earlier and there could have been up to 8 people dead or wounded. The moral of the story is, make sure there are no rocks in or around your camp fire.

Wow! I would have not expected that to happen. It's a good thing no one was hurt. Campers can be repaired or replaced.





Thanks for the warning.Edited by: Max Power

wow...been camping for years and never had an exploding rock ! are you sure that was all that was in the fire?? sorry for your losses..yes..could have been much worse had you been outside, good luck, bc

lol.. i was taught in boy scouts to never have a river rock in a fire. They end up absorbing water and will explode when heated.. confined pressure from the steam = boom.

lol.. i was taught in boy scouts to never have a river rock in a fire. They end up absorbing water and will explode when heated.. confined pressure from the steam = boom. The rock was under old ash, I always remove any rock I find because I know (and knew before this past weekend) how they react to lots of heat. I had removed half dozen rocks a couple nights earlier. And Camp owners do not like us starting camp fires all over the lot, So we us the old burn pile. You can bet that from now on I will be checking with a shovel.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Approve.gif You don't have to drop the bomb on me twicehttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif

wow...been camping for years and never had an exploding rock ! are you sure that was all that was in the fire?? sorry for your losses..yes..could have been much worse had you been outside, good luck, bc Yes I am sure! There were 25 or more rock pieces 5" or larger that we found. And I have seen rocks do this before, just not to this degree.

Marble and limestone are notorious for this, due to void volumes, inclusions, etc. Granite is _FAR_less likely to react to heat, that's why they make countertops out of it. Of course, you won't find granite rocks just lying around in a campsite. Most river rock is limestone.


Hey, I'm just a hillbilly, but my wife's a PhD in physics/geology. She told me this... (They grow 'em smart down in Cut N Shoot...)


hdmax, glad to hear no one was hurt.Edited by: CStone

Yeah, Years ago in boy scouts we got the bright idea to build a huge pyre on a point that had been exposed by low river levels. In fine scouting tradition we built a fire that could be seen from space and proceeded to set up camp just far enough away that the radiant heat didn't melt our skin. Well about the time the bottom logs in our log cabin fire started to crumble the hundreds of river rocks started to detonate.


At first it was kinda amusing, just little guys cooking off, then the big boomers started to go. Well needless to say after a few of our comrades took glowing hot rock chips in the gut we became highly motivated. By the time the biggest rocks had exploded the fire had truely been blown out. Not enough wood was left in the area to keep the fire going. No one was seriously hurt.....a hard lesson learned.......and given the outcome, a fond memory of youthful foolishness.

Water turns to steam at a 1800:1 ratio, which does cause quite an explosion.


BTW always love our Boyscout fires.

years later I am a Safety Engineer @ at a large facility that includes a foundry. The furnaces are AC induction and use water to cool the copper coils. If the ceramic liner of the furnace were to fail, which is a very real possibility, the molten iron can melt the coils and the cooling water will flash to steam under the iron bath. At that point the 1800:1 ratio becomes a very bad thing. The entire 15 ton contents of the furnace can be blown through the roof of the facility basically melting or burning everything it touches.


I joke with the furnace deck operators about my desire to never "install a skylight" over the deck.


Who new that a few years later I would be responsible for safety around the biggest kick ass boy scout fire there is. That set up is so big its almost like an OA firehttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif...............http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gif


if you know the OA..................you know. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gifEdited by: 403turbo