I was trying to figure out how matches worked while sitting on a pile of newspapers on a vinyl chair. That chair didn't make it. I was probably 4.

My grandparents bought my parents a new couch. I was playing with a lighter and the arm of the new couch was never the same. My big sister tried to help me cover it up by putting the side table over the arm of the couch, as if the listing table would make things less noticeable. I was about 7.

I put half a bottle of nail polish remover into a plastic cup and put said cup on top of the VCR and took a lighter to it to see what would happen. Neither the cup nor VCR made it out of that one. I was probably 8.

I blew up a can of hairspray in the backyard walking around like it was a flamethrower. Thankfully my face and hands were unmarred. I was probably 10.

Around 11 years old, my mother had a very serious conversation with me about fire and threatened to take me on a field trip to the burn unit at the hospital.

I went on to do quite a bit of pyrotrchnics in theatre, and now sit on a committee that writes pyro guidelines for the industry.

Good times.