lake of fire

Although it was not the classic kero burner, I witnessed a small lake of fire right on top of the decommissioned coffee table that I use for all the testing.

I was testing MSR's Internationale 600. It worked superbly with white gas, so it was time to try it out with kero.

I lit it, and it was working fine. I turned around to attend to another job--maybe for 30 or 40 seconds, a minute at the most. When I turned around again, black smoke was coming out of the garage door. Inside the garage was filled with smoke, and the MRS was sitting in the middle of the freshly created lake of kerosene, happily burning in orange flame.

The fact that the garage was 5 minutes from burning down did not surprise me. That this happened in 80F weather in no wind situation did.

I just tilted the table and spilled the excess onto concrete and shut off the valve and blew the fire out. Although I had the fire extinguisher at hand, it did not warrant its use. I would have used it, if I were using gasoline.

A Lesson learned without a disaster: 1) Do the testing outside, especially if it is the first try. 2) And do keep your eye on the stove at all times! 3) Have a fire extinguisher ready in a reach.

I was one luky dude!