My husband and his brothers did in their teen years, not as actual children. This was in the early/mid 80's when teens were wilder than what they were in the mid 90s and beyond.

Anonymous wrote:My mind is blown by this thread.

Same. This was never a thing with me or my friends, and we were always out in the woods unsupervised and stuff. I can’t think of one instance where any of the 10+ kids in my neighborhood did something like this.

Of course. We built camp fires. We occasionally did experiments where we saw what sorts of things burned and how. We'd try and start fires using flint and steel or magnifying glasses.

My kids can build camp fires. They're usually the ones who build a fire in a fireplace. We've done supervised experiments with setting things on fire. They're so cautious though. Things we did when we were kids, they think are awful and are amazed we're still alive.

My friend and I (both female) lit matches and candles and held things like pencils and Pez wrappers in them, dripped wax on stuff, etc. Poured non-aerosol hairspray on the street and lit it. We talked about lighting it right when a car came by so it would leave flaming tracks like in Back to the Future, but fortunately we were smart enough to remember that gasoline is flammable and never actually followed through on that one!

We were always pretty careful, and I think we had a decent sense of what was too much. I don't think the impulse behind it was destructive, though. Mostly we were bored '80s kids who didn't have cable.

As a tween I remember watching a friend's older brother dig a hole in their yard, fill it with gas, and light it. It was cool. We also learned very quickly that you can't extinguish that with water. That was scary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my gosh I was just thinking about this the other day. Woman here and yes, my friends and I used to set fires in the backyard. We also used to do that thing where you'd spray hairspray into a lighter and make a big torch. It is nothing short of a miracle we never burned anything down or hurt ourselves (knock wood, thank you to the gods!).

^ me again - do kids still do this? I get the impression kids are less destructive now than when we were young. (I'm in my 40s with no kids.)

Kids are watched too closely these days to get away with much of this.

My husband and a friend set woods on fire. I think they were trying to torch a beehive. Don't know the details.

My cousin and I (female) once went through a huge box of matches in the garage, pouring/spraying stuff on the concrete and throwing a match. Not smart.

Anonymous wrote:Making miniblowtorches with a lighter and hairspray? Yes. Lighting matches just to watch them burn? Yes. Play with lenses and focusing sunlight? Yes. Fireworks? Yes.

This. Grew up in a small town; lots of forests around. When I was 10-13, friends and I spent hours a day in the woods building cabins, bridges, rope swings, swimming in creeks, and starting fires or playing with fire of any sort. It. Was. So. Much. Fun.

Grew out of it when I started to play the 1980s equivalent of "travel" sports.

Set fires? No.

But we used to play with matches all the time in our basement bonus/family room. Female

Anonymous wrote:Male. Age 11, I started a fire in the woods. Fire trucks came and put it out, but it scared me so I never did it again.

Another time maybe age 12 or 13 I was burning a model airplane as "battle damage" and hot plastic dropped off and burned a hole in the carpet. I was in big trouble when my mom saw that, you bet.

Awesome kid logic. It scared you so you never started fires again in the woods.

Lol

Anonymous wrote:Oh my gosh I was just thinking about this the other day. Woman here and yes, my friends and I used to set fires in the backyard. We also used to do that thing where you'd spray hairspray into a lighter and make a big torch. It is nothing short of a miracle we never burned anything down or hurt ourselves (knock wood, thank you to the gods!).

^ me again - do kids still do this? I get the impression kids are less destructive now than when we were young. (I'm in my 40s with no kids.)

Oh my gosh I was just thinking about this the other day. Woman here and yes, my friends and I used to set fires in the backyard. We also used to do that thing where you'd spray hairspray into a lighter and make a big torch. It is nothing short of a miracle we never burned anything down or hurt ourselves (knock wood, thank you to the gods!).

Male. Age 11, I started a fire in the woods. Fire trucks came and put it out, but it scared me so I never did it again.

Another time maybe age 12 or 13 I was burning a model airplane as "battle damage" and hot plastic dropped off and burned a hole in the carpet. I was in big trouble when my mom saw that, you bet.

Anonymous wrote:Female here and yes. It was a big activity for my friends and I, lighting tiny little fires in our hideout spot. My cousin and I also did it but it got out of control once and that scared me straight.

Your post made me remember the time my girlfriends and I accidentally burned our clubhouse down! We were careless with the cigarettes we were smoking. Lol

Female here. And no I never touched or played with fire. When I was young, maybe around 2Nd or 3rd grade my older male cousins were playing with fire. Something happened and something exploded and my cousin had 3rd degree burns all over his face and body. He spent half the year between the burn unit and ICU. I saw what fire would do and I was terrified to ever go near it. I’m still very very scared of fire.