2025-06-20
Because the fire tubes worked so well on the previous one, I wanted to play with the idea of redirecting the fire more. I remembered seeing a mesmerizing pattern of flame spreading along the ceiling on the ride Escape from Pompeii and was hoping to get something like that under the angled “roof” in this fire. I was also hoping to direct some flames to flow out through a radiating set of fire tubes. That didn’t quite work, but it was still a great fire.
I now realize that the pattern of slow spreading cellular flames coming from propane that I saw on the ride are very different than the fast moving vertical flames of a large wood fire. And the sheer volume of flow hitting that surface was way too much for the piddly little 3 sided flame tubes to do much. It was like a waterfall hitting a fountain designed for a gentle trickle. I don’t think I’ll get that cellular pattern with a bonfire, but I can play more with having fire tubes direct flames out from a central chamber.
This was the first fire where we started adding surface decoration (paint). And while I completely avoided laminated wood (plywood, OSB) in the first fire, I did use some in this one to get that nice big flat surface.
The pink wood that became the forked tongue at the last minute is bits of an old fence on our property that’s been falling apart since before we moved in. The “hair” is mostly Scotch Broom that I pulled out from our yard. Nasty invasive stuff with really tough roots that grows like crazy in the PNW. I bought a special tool called a Pullerbear back in 2018 specifically for ripping the stuff out of the ground.
Check out the other Solstice Fires we’ve done.