I bought this for my partner a couple of months ago. Before I go any further, she has loved everything about this fire pit. If she has time, she sits next to it every morning and drinks her coffee. And on cool evenings we will sit around it and drink a beer. It really is great for relaxing out in the yard... until last night. We were sitting around the pit talking, and suddenly there was a sound like fireworks, followed immediately by impacts on the awning overhead and the back of the house. As we were processing this, less than five seconds later there was a second. For the record, we store the fire pit under the awning, on the back porch, and always use the included cover. What happened is, that the included lava rock was exploding. This happens because moisture builds up in the pores, and when the rock is heated quickly, such as over a fire, the moisture evaporates, turns to steam, and the pressure blows the rock apart. This sends hot shards of rock flying through the air. It is very dangerous. Had anyone been hurt, we would be talking to a lawyer. The pictures are of the inside edge and outside surface of one of the lava rocks that exploded. You can see the clean break from the inside on the first one, and the outside which hit our plastic awning and melted it. Yes, I had exploding rocks that are hot enough to melt plastic. Look, this is a great item, but they need to be a little more mindful of safety. Use lava glass, or something else less dangerous. That is all.