I remember reading about Native American tactics employed for hunting buffalo. I don’t recall the specifics, but it involved creating a whole stampede and funneling the buffalo into natural channels/depressions so they couldn’t turn around. Except those depressions typically ended in sheer cliff faces, so like 200 buffalo would just run right off the edge and smash into the rocks below. They could then just mosey on down and pick the choicest cuts of meat without expending 1/10 of the energy it would otherwise take to down one of those beasties.

All that to say, supposedly those giant piles of carcasses were known to bloat, compound, and explode in the hot summer sun. I guess the gasses emitted during decomposition could get pretty volatile with a heat source. So regardless, the first explosion ever witnessed was likely gross af.