TE,
Many years ago, when we were in our early teens, we used to burn out an area deep in the woods every year, then dam it so that it made a great skating rink for us in the winter.
One year we decided to use gasoline as an accelerant.
We bought a lot of gasoline.
Then we walked and emptied the cans over the entire area, which took some time.
Then, we couldn't get a match lit because it was cold and we got some of them lit.
As more and more time went by, you could see the fumes in the air.
I remembered a story a friend of mine's father told, about how explosive and powerful gasoline was.
So I suggested, wrapping a cloth around a stick, soaking it in gasoline, lighting it, and throwing it into the cleared, gasoline soaked area from a safe distance. Some of the older kids made fun of my reluctance to get close to the soaked area.
I then told them what my friend's father had said.
When we threw that lighted stick into the area, it didn't light, it exploded.
The heat was intense.
Had anyone been standing closer, they would have been seriously burned.
I developed a healthy respect for unignited, standing gasoline that day.
From then on, we were more safety oriented when we burned the grass/weeds in Skunk's Pond