If you throw a cinderblock into a fire, will it really explode?

Question

So last night I was at a woods party for my friends birthday. we're all sitting around a campfire and someone I know made the claim that if you throw a cinderblock into the fire, the cinderblock will actually blow itself apart and send chunks flying a few feet away after a few minutes in the fire.

I don't think it will but he claims to have seen it before firsthand, and several others agreed with him. I don't think it's likely but hell, ya never do know.


unfortunately we didn't happen to have a cinderblock handy to test it out.

Answer 1

This may well be true since I have it on good authority that masonry in general will explode with great force when exposed to a martian heat ray.

Answer 2

cinderblocks don't explode so much as pop. We have a firepit made from cinderblock pavers. once the fire really starts to go... and for quite some time the hot blocks will crack and bits will pop off. Sure, I wouldn't want the hot peice of block to fly at me, but I would say that is far from an explosion.

Answer 3

Good thing to. If the fire was hot enough, the cinder block would explode like a stick of dynamite. Scattering not only cinder block but fire as well.

A cinder block is made from an air foamed concrete called hadite and dried in a kiln. When you expose it to high heat the trapped air inside the mix expands and very rapidly. (It explodes)

Answer 4

We have a small building, inside our warehouse. It contains our Fire sprinkler system pump and is designed to protect
that equipment during a fire. It is made of cinder block. Perhaps all cinderblock is not the same but surely ours is not supposed to explode.

Answer 5

cinderblocks explode in a fire. not a cool thing to do in a campfire, as it can lead to secondary blazes all around you.

Answer 6

cinder clocks are pourous, if they absorb plenty of water, the water can boil and break......but they will crumble when the heat becomes to extreme, when building structures like schools we will use a "fire rated" cinder block in certin walls, it s a little bit thicker on the inside......but all my years in construction ive never seen a cinder block explode

Answer 7

no that just something u see in movies

Answer 8

if the fire is hot eough ..yes it would