When I was in Grade 9 we discovered how to make a smoke bomb with Potassium Nitrate and sugar. You can buy Potassium Nitrate at drug stores under the name “saltpeter”. Potassium Nitrate is an oxidizing agent so releases oxygen as it burns. Sugar is naturally flammable but puts itself out. Together it burns hot and releases a lot of smoke. For Halloween we made 2.5 lbs of it and lit it in my back yard. It filled the yard with smoke.

In Grade 10 we tried to outdo ourselves. We found a much cheaper source for Potassium Nitrate at hydroponic stores. We made a 25 lb smoke bomb. We made a 4 minute timer from an alarm clock we got at a thrift store and it filled a park with smoke.

In Grade 11 we had a reputation to uphold. We took a collection from some of our classmates and got enough for a 250 LB smoke bomb. My friend’s parents were out of town and he offered his house for making the smoke bomb. A lot of people showed up. We didn’t plan for this but somehow alcohol showed up and there was a lot of underage drinking. The sugar has to be melted on the stove. We were making batch after batch of the smoke bomb and dumping it in a garbage bin in the middle of the kitchen on a dolly. We had only made about 20 LBs when some drunk girl came in and turned up the stove temperature. It lit prematurely which lit up the entire garbage can. We were instantly blind with the amount of smoke and had to leave the building. The fire department was called. The fire went up into the attic. We did about $18,000 worth of damage to the house.

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