Every year on the Fourth of July, our friends Ed and Terry have a party. For many years, this was at their houseboat on Lake Union, a great venue for the Lake Union fireworks show (although transportation was always a challenge, as all their neighbors also had a great venue and parties with which to enjoy it). For a few years now, though, they have been on the waterfront down in Burien and the spectacle of the grand, professional fireworks show (although several of these are also visible, if more distantly, from there) has been supplanted by the simpler joy of lighting up stuff that burns or goes bang oneself.
The big event of the evening is the floating bonfire. Together with neighbors, they build a raft, pile it with various flammable and/or explosive items, float it out off the beach, and light it up when darkness falls. The great challenge of this endeavour has always been figuring out how to light the thing in the most dramatic and spectacular fashion without simultaneously burning down nearby homes or boats. Because this is a once-a-year event, opportunities for testing lighting techniques are limited. Each year sees certain, subtle improvements, with the occasional disastrous setback, and I think at this rate in ten years or so we may have a reliable ignition method worked out for the enjoyment of posterity.
Attempts from years past have ranged from the laughable (simply shooting bottle rockets and/or Roman candles at a heap of waterlogged wood) to the dangerous (shoving a lit flare into a gasoline soaked rubbish pile from a nearby inflatable boat) to the inspired (rigging a zip line to carry a lit flare down into the raft). Over the last few years, however, we have started to make incremental but steady improvements revolving around a combination of white gas in containers to prevent evaporation, and massed Roman Candle firings.
In recent events, we have used simple plastic grocery bags, positioned strategically around the wood pile on the raft, to hold the white gas, counting on the heat of the burning fireballs to penetrate the flimsy bags and ignite the gas. This has had some limited success, last year going down to almost the last available Roman Candle before achieving ignition. Chief among the problems is the tendency of the bags to oscillate in rhythm with the often heavy wake from the ample marine traffic, resulting in much spillage and tearing hours before the event. The gas would soak the wood, but evaporate before darkness. Redundant bags solved this to some degree but never to our satisfaction, as the bags which remained full might not be on the visible side of the raft at lighting time. Also, the penetrative power of the average Roman candle projectile through thin flammable plastic is not quite what one might assume it to be, and with some consternation we have watched flaming balls bounce right off plastic shopping bags without so much as scorching them, much less igniting the contents.
This year, we hit upon a much more successful mechanism. A plastic water jug was appropriated, half-filled with white gas, and an axle of sorts was whittled and inserted near the center of gravity. The jug was hung near the top of the superstructure framed in on the raft, from the axle, upright and sealed. Myriad holes were punched in the top of the jug at various angles, with a view toward providing a sprinkler effect when it was overturned. To tip it on schedule, twine was tied to the handle and run down through an eye-screw secured to the raft base (ensuring a downward pull regardless of the true angle from raft to shore) and then back to the deck of the house. Numerous safety lines, chafing protectors, etc were rigged to safeguard the jug through the day as it would bob around unaccompanied. Due to a relatively high low tide and a limited window, we only had about an hour and a half to do the whole job this year.
The structural stability of the raft, sadly, was not as impressive as the ignition mechanism, and several trips throughout the day were required to retrieve and re-attach parts which had floated off. Come nightfall, however, the craft was reasonably seaworthy and ready for the lighting attempt.
As Ed distributed the ammunition to the assembled crowd, I gently tugged on the tipping line to ease the raft around. The jug was positioned just over an old, tinder-dry Christmas tree which was judged the best target, but wind and tide had swung the raft around so it was out of view from the deck. I was slightly worried that the twine would break but it came around gently, and then I pulled on it more directly to upset the jug. It came right over and immediately started spraying everything below. The weight of the raft had submerged the main deck and well-wetted some of the materials but the sprinkler-like top of the jug distributed the gas on wet and dry fuels alike. Indeed, some went right into the water, forming a small slick running toward shore.
Before I could even get my camera ready, the very first shot landed three feet shy of the raft, but within the gas slick. Flames coursed back up to the raft and lit the trees up with a whoosh. I include the below video started bare seconds after the thing went up to show the effects. The rest of the participants were left with little to shoot at, but they seemed to enjoy making the effort nonetheless.
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