Where did it go?

Because I tend to take things out of context more than most this may not seem funny to anyone other than me, but I’m going to share it anyway.

I was camping this past weekend with my family and one afternoon we were sitting around relaxing, enjoying the mountains, and not really doing much of anything else when a van pulled up to a campsite a little ways down the road.  A family poured out and then they went about setting up for what seemed to be a picnic.  We didn’t pay them any mind after that until an hour or so later two of their group approached our camp.

“We lost our fire.  Do you have any…”  At that point a language barrier kicked in but we finally came to understand that they needed some lighter fluid.  Unfortunately we didn’t have any to offer them and they moved to the next occupied camp to continue on their search.  Eventually I think they just went to the store and bought some as they drove off and then came back.

In retrospect it made more sense than it initially did.  We were very confused: “They need lighter fluid to start their fire?”  “They were already cooking, what happened to the fire they had going?”  Etc…  Then it dawned on us that perhaps they were using charchoal to do their cooking and then needing the lighter fluid made a little more sense.

However, I’m still not sure how you “lose” your fire.  Did it get up and wander off on its own?  Did it sneak away while you were distracted?  It’s not really something that should be left un-supervised.