We just had a nice stone patio, complete with stone fire pit, added to our home. The other night our son and a few of his friends were gathering for the maiden voyage of the fire pit.
Scott and I were in the house watching television, contently thinking how nice it was to have Steven’s friends over. What happened next rocked my world, literally. BoooooooM! We rushed out to our back deck and looked down to the patio.
The patio and surrounding lawn area were covered in what looked like glowing rubies. Red hot embers littered the ground. If it were not so terrifying it would have been beautiful. The fire in the pit was extinguished and a tower of smoke snaked upwards, lit only by the remaining shards of logs as they radiated neon red heat. Once the vision made it to our brains we scrambled to comprehend what occurred, “What happened!?” and “Is everyone okay?!”
We grabbed fire extinguishers and joined the stunned group on the patio. Quick assessments were made of everyone…astonishingly no one was hurt badly. A few had small burns or scratches from flying concrete and firewood, no doubt all of them will carry emotional scars from such an unexpected and frightening event.
Apparently as they had just settled around the pit, and were close enough to warm their hands by the fire, without warning they felt, saw and experienced a large explosion. The percussive force blew them back a bit and it is by God’s mercy and grace that none of them were seriously harmed. Chunks of concrete, which formed the base of the fire pit, flew in every direction. The once burning logs were propelled upwards and shattered into large embers before settling to the ground around the pit and patio.
Though Steven and his friends were considerably shook up, it could have been much, much worse. We walked among the aftermath thanking God for His protection and looking for clues as to what caused the explosion. Our amateur sleuthing formed a conclusion which would later be supported by our contractor and various other professionals.
Unlike most fire pits, ours had been built with a concrete flooring and drain. Apparently the heat from the burning logs had cause a buildup of pressure below the concrete layer. There was no way to tell what actually caused the pressure below the concrete slab, but the most likely culprit was trapped water or moisture. Normally any expansion of gases or steam would vent through gravel grating. Our fire pit base had no ventilation points.
The events of that night continue to play through my mind when I try to sleep. It is both comforting to realize God’s provision on that night, and yet disturbingly clear how out of my control life can be.
The fire pit looked great. It looked solid and strong. The foundation of the pit gave no hint of hidden danger. It looked like it could handle the heat. But looks were deceiving.
Oh, the pit was strong. Matter of fact when all was said and done the walls of the pit and patio remained unmoved. It was the FOUNDATION that mattered, and it mattered a lot!
We can be like this pit. We sometimes present a strong outer image. We look like we can handle the demands of the world or hold fast under pressure. We diligently try to build our lives with good deeds and works, but neglect our personal relationship with our savior. But when we are tested, put under fire, it will be our foundation, and not the things we surround ourselves with, that will determine our ability to stand.
Just as I will diligently check the foundation of the fire pit in the future and always consider if it is able to sustain the heat and flame before EVER trusting it to do so…I will also need to check my spiritual foundation.
1Cor. 3:10-13 “…I laid a foundation and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which was laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, each man’s work will become evident; ….because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”
Tuesday With Teri 
What a scarey thing to happen! Yes, thank God all were protected, & just enough fire & horrific scare to keep us on our toes, too. We can’t get too comfortable in this life or the after life. As a former Girl Scout Leader knows….Always Be Prepared.
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The things you do for a blog post!!
Seriously, I’ll bet you would rather not have this particular fodder. How terrifying. I’m so glad the story has a happy ending.
Having said that, you’re absolutely right. Jesus is our foundation, and everything we build on Him will be tested by fire. (Yikes) I think I’m going to stop reading blogs and go read my bible.
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I’m so glad everyone is okay. How scary!
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I am so thankful everyone is ok. So many things happen to you guys, especially Steven and Ashley that I am glad I live down here in Pensacola and don’t know anything until it is over, and then sometimes I don’t hear about things at all. Will you please be careful. This is why I pray for these kids every night. Love Ya!
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Perhaps my favorite ,this is really good Teri.
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I had just read your post. Nice to hear no one was seriously injured. We live in Bradenton Florida.
I know first hand just what you went through. On April 26th 2013 we were all sitting around the waterside fire pit in the early evening when, out of the Blue, a herrific explosion had occured. The embers launched about 15′ in the air. Together with red hot embers and flying rock were scattered all over the 30′ long dock and even went in my boat and the water by which we were sitting. We didn’t sustain any serious injuries but emotional scares are still very present. We had a similar event when we first put it in a year and a half ago. The only thing the two events had in common was the pit had no ash in the bed. I had just cleaned out the ash the day before the second one. Don’t know what had started the whole process, suffice to say, I’m a little gun shy. After discussing this event with othere, I was told that the circular pavers might be the cause. Apparently the Limestone is not condusive to moisture and heat. Keith
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I noticed your page’s ranking in google’s search results is very low.
You are loosing a lot of traffic. You need high Page Rank backlinks to rank in top10.
I know – buying them is too expensive. It is better to own them.
I know how to do that, just google it:
Polswor’s Backlinks Source
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I think I want to puke! I love how everyone always gives god the “grace” of a good thing but never blames him when a child dies of cancer. I am so glad I live my life on my terms.
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I’ve been a christian almost my whole life. Got saved at the age of 10 and never looked back. I’ve spent a lifetime serving a truly wonderful God and Savior. But I have to say that blogs like this tend to irritate me a bit. I stumbled upon this page because I’m in the middle of building a fire pit for a friend who just lost her husband in a tragic accident and I need information to know if my materials can stand the heat. Google sent me here. While your story is very touching and makes for a great Sunday morning story to go with a sermon it doesn’t help me figure out if the fire pit I’m building will explode. Please tell me. What was the foundation of your fire pit made out of? Lol I would feel terrible if this thing exploded on her kids!
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You have a Solid point. Thank you for sharing this event. I am looking to build a fire pit. My Wife’s answer is pinterest, however I see it more as someone else’s follies. I did not think I would find a biblical basis for the answer on this subject but it is so very true. I will be sure to use fire bricks as the foundation and fire place mortar to place the bricks. Thank you. Hope you and your family have been able to overcome and enjoy some time by the fire.
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This actually happened to us. We had a couple of friends over as well. Our scenario was about the same as yours. I had just moved in to our place and had a fire pit built over concrete slab at our dock. It was constructed out of pavers. The pavers in the center of the fire pit were removed and the wood would lay on the slab.
The heat from the fire would heat up the concrete and when it hit water in the concrete it would explode. We had embers scattered up to 30′ away
When ours exploded a very large ember came to rest between my legs on my patio chair. It destroyed all of our furniture. Don’t know how it didn’t hit one of us
I did some investigating and even had the representative from the paver company come over to our place. They had not ever seen such a thing.
We came to the conclusion that there had to have a bed of an insulator to sit on the concrete. We chose red cinder rock. Never had a problem since
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THAT HAPPEN TO ME YESTERDAY TODAY MY FIRE PIT BLOW UP AND THANKS GOD NOTHING HAPPEN TO US MY WIFE ONE OF MY KIDS AND HER SISTER THEY WERE ABAUT 7 FEETR AWAR FRON THE FIRE PIT, AND I WAS FIVE FEET AWAY AND MY OTHER KID CALL ME TO PLAY WITH HIM 5 MINUTES AFTER THAT FIRE PIT BLOW UP BIG PARTS BLOW ABAUT 12 15 FEET AWAY. SOME OF THE PARTS PROBABLY WEIGHT ABAUT 5 POUND O MORE , ONE OF THOSE WHEN AT THE DIRECTION THAT I WAS SIT, ONLY GOD SAVES FRON THIS ONE, BETTER DO NOT BUY THOSE FIRE PITS. GOD REALY SAVE US FRON THIS THEY WERE REALY SHARP PARTS FLYIN AWAY FRON THE FIRE PIT. THAKS GOD FOR SAVE US.
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