A Touch of Pyromania

Apparently John has quite a history of pyromania. (Wish I had known that earlier!)

When John's dad first bought some farmland in Winslow it extended to the river. He wanted John to go out and burn the tamaracks so it would be easier to clear. John was about 14-15 years old. One evening he went out after school with a few matches. It was late winter/early spring so everything was really dry. John started lighting the leaves on the ground and they didn't burn very good. He kept going further and further into the tamaracks as he continued to attempt to start a fire. He was just about to give up when a cloud covered up the sun. He turned around to find that there was an inferno behind him from all the little fires he had started. That was more of a fire than he expected. He quickly walked over to a family members house so he wouldn't get in trouble. A slurry bomber was in the area and was called out to assess the situation.

A couple years later his cousin, Gene (Bean) and John went out again. They made torches, with fabric soaked in diesel fuel. They made a huge fire. They had used up one torch and were in the process of making another torch when the fire department showed up and men were running up and down the dike trying to figure out what they were going to do. One of the captains saw the boys and came over to ask if they had seen who had started the fire. They told him that they had. He wasn't very pleased and asked why. John told him that his father owned the land and wanted it cleared.

About that same time the Young Men were assigned to burn cedars at the Stake Ranch. John and Bean couldn't get there when the others went because of softball game or some other conflict. They got there as all the others were leaving. They got busy and burned more in an hour than the others had all day. As they were leaving the truck got stuck. It appeared that there was fire all around. Jeff, Bean's little brother who had come along, started crying "I'm going to die! I'm going to die! We're all going to die!" The boys, other than Jeff, were pretty pleased with their handiwork on that fire. The whole night sky was glowing with the light from the fire when they left.