When I was a kid I decided to make the ultimate Estes based 'heavy lifter'. I made a 6 D-engine powered monster. I hevily reinforced the body with epoxy and drove out into the middle of our pasture to launch it with some friends. we set up the launch pad and slid the rocket onto the launch rod. Then we ignited it... What follows is the timeline from the actual accident report:

T=.01 seconds: Full ignition
T=0.1 seconds: Massive exhaust plume instantaneously ignites grass in a 2 foot diameter circle.
T=.2 seconds: rocket gets stuck on launch rod, (Design flaw suspected)
T=1.0 seconds: Flight director (me) starts to formulate the words "oh shit!"
T=1.5 s: Launch rod detaches from pad, rod and rocket leap from the pad.
T=1.7 s: Rocket and 3 foot steel javelin departsfrom vertical flight.
T=2s to T=5s: rocket and deadly steelspike corkscrews violently while flight crew dives for cover.
T=5.5s: rocket sticks into ground a few dozen yards away and starts another grassfire.
T=7 s- T=4minutes, flight team desperately beat out flames so their parents dont ground them.

AFTER ACTION REPORT:
All of the flight operations team (all teenaged boys) agreed that the incident was "freakin cool" and that future launches of similar vehicles were a definite 'GO'. Only improvements reccomended to the vehicle design were:
1) Using more engines, and
2) Possibly loading the fuselage with black powder.

(Did I mention that I am amazingly lucky to have lived through my youth?)