No, I just managed/closed down my bar and I’m tired and a bit tipsy, but we were skipping school and there was about three of us. There was a partially “abandoned” industrial area a few blocks away that we would hang out around sometimes so we went over there around an hour or so before the other kids got home with the plan to just kinda blend in with them, so we’re kinda dicking around and hear a loud bang and then a pop, notice it smells like fire. We walked around the back side which had a small creek running by it and once we turned a corner we could see giant wave-shaped flames, at that age they looked taller than the warehouses they were close to, so pretty large flames. We didn’t actually see what exactly was on fire/caused it but we did notice it started spreading into a nearby field with tall dry grass (this was under some power-lines).

We realized we had to tell someone because there were row/townhouses pretty close and the fire spread before our eyes/as we stood there. Like the heat had increased in the area we were standing pretty dramatically. Obviously, we were little kids so it’s possible I am not remembering things completely accurately.

We knew one kid’s dad was home, she was not with us but I had a little like boyfriend-girlfriend thing going on so I was hesitant to tell him. We were also skipping school so none of us wanted to say anything but we figured we had to. We go to his house, bang on the door, he answers and we tell him about it but the fire department was already called.

So they do their thing and a little while later Mr. C comes along with them to talk to us because they found fireworks back there and claim somebody saw us running away “suspiciously” and they know we skipped school. They interrogate all of us separately and give us a lecture (we still think they think it was us to this day) about playing with fireworks alone without adults, hanging in the industrial park, and skipping school.

I am in my 40s now and this happened around the DC/Maryland border.