Per rbowman:
Today burning trash would get you arrested in a lot of places let alone
starting the process with a big ball of fire... As far as I can tell
kids these days don't have any fun at all.

At the chicken hatchery where I worked during high school, the owner and
his brother told a story about one of their schoolmates taking dynamite
from his father's storeroom (farmers use dynamite in the daily course of
things) and going around town tossing sticks of the stuff down sewer
openings.

I would guess that today something like that would make the national
news and the kid would wind up in prison.

Back then it sounded to me like pretty soon everybody in town knew who
did it, the kid's father wound up paying for the damage, the father
dealt with the kid, and that was the end of it.
--
Pete Cresswell