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 There
were factors involved such as the wind that made getting a roaring
fire quite difficult.
The four teams struggled with getting the flame started and keeping
it alit, but in the end it was the team of Cody Friedlein and Jon
and Elaine Norin that won the day.
The teams in the contest included the Friedlein/Norin Team, the
Ballinger Team with Casey and Ryan Ballinger and Wyatt Reinhart, the
Mueller/Usrey/Bartch team with Heidi Mueller, Roy Usrey, and
Savannah Bartch, and the Boy scout team that included two local
scouts, Beau Ford and Blaine Klemm.
The day began with contest supervisor Rob Rankin talking about the
rules. He said that each team would be given a box of matches. He
said that the matches would be given to the contestant that would
retrieve the water for boiling. He urged the team to choose that one
person before coming for the matches because once the matches were
placed in a contestant’s hand they would be the ones who had to go
get the water.
There were not a lot of rules to the contest. First, the group could
use the items left at the boil stations to start and maintain their
fire. Each station had a stand for the can of water, a could of
logs, and flat piece of plywood, a few short pieces of 2X4 boards,
and a other miscellaneous small pieces of wood. Rankin said the
teams could use other items on the ground as part of their
fire-starting method.
When time was called, the match carrier would go to the corner of
the Postville courthouse and pick up a full can of water and carry
in back to the “camp.” Once the water was on hand, the matches could
be utilized to get the fire started.
The wind was not the friend of the contestants on
Sunday. A stiff breeze continued to mar the efforts of getting a
good fire started. Teams used all the larger pieces of wood at their
disposal to build a shelter around the water can stand, then gently
fed kindling and matches to a fire that refused to light.
Rankin told the team that they could burn whatever they had at their
disposal, including the matches and matchbox. He reminded them
though that the matches were strike on box and would not ignite
against any other surface.
Teams began by splintering the small board, gathering a few leaves,
scraping up the corn on the ground from the previous contest, and
striking match after match trying to get the flame to start.
The scout team had the most struggles. The boys and their helper
tried a number of methods including building a pile of matches and
lighting them all afire at the same time under the water can. They
would get a small flame for a minute or two, then it would abruptly
go out, and it was all to start again.
The Ballinger team also struggled but not quite as much. The flame
started but with the wind, it struggled to grow. Team Mueller was a
little more successful at the get-go, but they didn’t get that
roaring fire as quickly as team Friedlein.
The Friedlein team also had issues with the wind, but built a
significant shelter for the flame, and soon they were the only team
with roaring flames that overtook the top of the water can.
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The water can was to be delivered to the team camp as
full as possible because, the winner would have water reach a
rolling boil and boil over the top of the can. If too much water was
lost in the walk back to the camp, then it would become all the more
difficult to get that water to boil over the top.
In the end, the teams resorted to finding or taking the hats off
their heads to fan the flames and coax the fire to become hot enough
to boil the water. Rankin at one point said
he was surprised that none of the teams had used the flat piece of
plywood as a fan for the flames, but most of the teams had used that
wood as a portion of the shelter they built to protect the fire from
the brisk wind.
In the end, the Friedlein team got a roaring fire that was consuming
all the wood surrounding it and the water began to bubble. Friedlein
called for the judge to come to their camp, and in just a minute or
so it was announced that the water had boiled over the top of the
can.
Thus the Friedlein team was the first-place winner of the event.
The Mueller team also got a good fire going. Though not the raging
fire of the first-place team it was significant enough to bring the
water can to boil next, landing them the second place finish.
Team Ballinger worked diligently to build a good fire and finally
achieved the goal of water boiling over the top of the can to secure
the third-place finish.
In the meantime the scout team was still struggling to get a fire
going. The fire would start, and the team employed all the right
methods to get a good flame, but it just never materialized. After a
while Rankin asked if they wished to continue working on their fire
and the team declined.
At the end of the competition Cody Friedlein and Jon
and Elaine Norin were the clear winners and received the certificate
to prove it. The win also assisted with the all-around points that
were being collected throughout all the competitions.
[Nila Smith]
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