"Fire in the hole" is a warning that an explosive detonation in a confined space is imminent. It originated with miners, who needed to warn their fellows that a charge had been set.
The first cannons developed were discharged, shot or exploded by placing a flaming torch to a small hole packed with gunpowder and leading to the main powder charge. This caused the main charge to explode, propelling the cannon ball to the enemy, or sometimes, blowing up the cannon and all standing nearby.
Hence, fire in the hole was both a command to the torch man, and a warning to all around. Over time cannons improved; they became safer, with no hole or fire needed. The command was reduced to fire, while the full phrase fire in the hole became a general warning for the use of explosive weapons. It was subsequently adopted by the United States Army and Marines to give notice that a grenade or satchel charge was being tossed into a bunker, spider hole, or other enclosure. The term frag out is also commonly used. It is not used for all explosions – throwing a grenade in the open is not announced, for example – only those surprisingly close.
Famous quotes containing the words fire in, fire and/or hole:
“I thought I alone suffered,
but suffering is everywhere.
When I went on the housetop
I saw its fire in every home.”
—Farid (13th cent.)
““God’s fire upon the wane,
A diagram hung there instead,
More women born than men.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The absence on the panel of anyone who could become pregnant accidentally or discover her salary was five thousand dollars a year less than that of her male counterpart meant there was a hole in the consciousness of the committee that empathy, however welcome, could not entirely fill.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)