Sound changes when a campfire is between you?

Hi guys, I’m new to the site, so hope i posted this question at the right place. Didn’t know where to post it, so I thot id see what you guys say. So the holidays are almost over, but with the warmer weather, we can be outside. So, last night we were sitting around as a family around a campfire, and I noticed that the person speaking on the other side of the fire would sound a little different, depending where the fire was leaping. Like the clarity of the vowels and consonants would change. I was wondering, am I nuts? Or is that a possibility, has anyone else experienced this? It was almost like listening to an mp3, versus a WAV or something :)