Staying safe when making a campfire is necessary, except you’re willing to do some little damage that can stretch across the entire wilderness. That won’t be much anyway. You’d just be hurting a couple of animals and most likely burn some fellow campers. Now that’s not too catastrophic, is it? Please tell me you got the sarcasm.
Tips For Staying Safe When Making A Campfire
Unfortunately, the stories of campfires going out of hands still make the newspapers. In the past three years alone, I have heard or read of at least 17 cases of a camping trip that went south due to a raging campfire— how much more the cases I don’t hear.
As a result, I have put it upon myself to put down these simple tips for safety when making your campfire. Ironically, they are tips most people should be familiar with, but I guess the excitement of a campfire can be intoxicating and overwhelming.
Let’s take a look at these tips.
Prepare Beforehand
As a prepper, you must prepare ahead for all possible happenstances because, after all, the dictionary defines you as “a person who prepares ahead.” Not the most accurate definition, but there’s certainly a correlation. So, when it comes to safety with your campfire, the first thing is to come prepared.
The first precaution in beforehand preparations is to find out the policies of a park on campfires. Establish if you can make a campfire when you can, what type, and how to. What comes next is to include fire extinguishers to your gear. It doesn’t matter how safe you think you’ll be; always carry 1, 2, or 3 cans of fire extinguisher on a camping trip, except you’re not going to be making any fire at all.
After that, you can now read articles or watch videos on how to make, maintain, and extinguish a campfire. Ensure to know the entire how-to on campfires, because even the tiniest spark can be devastating if it strays.
Here are other precautions to keep while preparing ahead:
- Make a fire in a pit designed explicitly for the purpose. A pit like this is typically made on dirt or gravel.
- Make fire away from personal items, especially devices that could lead to an explosion. This includes your car, phone, television, and many more.
- Sticks and twigs should be the first materials to put into the campfire, before the introduction of larger wood pieces.
- Make sure to start a campfire when there’s little or no wind.
Remain Vigilant
The thought of sparing some minutes to relax while the campfire keeps you warm is deeply tempting, but for your sake, kids or camping partner, never do so. Under no circumstance should a campfire be unattended to. Also, keep a keen eye on kids and ensure they are kept away from the fire at all times. This applies to your pets as well — I’d hate a barbecue made out of my German Shepherd.
Furthermore, burns can happen in an instant and can be murderous. A little silly mistake is all it takes to be scarred for life. So, this may mean that you keep alcohol and other intoxicating substances away when the fire is on. Having a bucket of water handy is advisable too, but even if you have a firefighting truck on standby, it still doesn’t beat being extra vigilant.
Be Thorough With Extinguishing
While I get that you may be tempted to make a blazing, roaring campfire, I’d still advise that you keep your fire small to extinguish it more easily. Too often, many leave a campfire without quenching it thoroughly, and this can be a costly action. When extinguishing a campfire, make sure you are thorough and absolute.
If you use coal, never bury them immediately after extinguishing the fire, instead allow them to cool off for some time. This is because coals retain heat for more than 24 hours and can cause a fire if buried in soil with high peat contents.
Importantly, keep in mind that the leftover of a fire can be dangerous, so keep children and pets away.
Stay Conscious Of Your Environment
This is similar to remaining vigilant but not entirely the same. From the moment you start your fire, to when you extinguish it and even for at least 5 hours after, stay aware of your surroundings. This is most important if you’re making the fire in an ordinary hole.
Roots can easily catch fire and may spread quickly before you find out. Also, as already mentioned, soil that contains peat can easily burn, so make sure you keep an eye on the ground.
Well, Just Don’t Make One!
Camping is so much fun, isn’t it? But we have to agree it is much more fun when there’s a campfire to sit around and listen to ghost stories on the cold nights. Talk about the icing on the cake. But note that it isn’t the actual chocolate cake.
To traditional campers, a trip without a campfire is unacceptable, but you may have to skip one if there’s a high-risk scenario, like say the soil contains peat, there’s heavy wind, and you’ve failed to bring your fire extinguishers.
When the odds of a mishap are high, there’s no need to make a campfire. You can still have a remarkable camping experience without it.
Conclusion On Staying Safe When Making A Campfire
Staying safe when making a campfire is non-negotiable. There’s an old saying that “fire has no master,” which is an absolute truth. Things can quickly go out of control, and before you know it, the air could be filled with smoke and a choking smell. And, for the sake of humanity, I’d hope you were not asleep then. But we don’t want this. Not when we can avoid it, isn’t it?
I can vividly remember this one Easter; a neighboring camper failed to keep precautions when building his campfire. It was a horrific experience — not to go into unpleasant details. If you’ve ever seen a scene like that, I doubt you’d ever arrange your campfire without proper care.