As the colder seasons are approaching fast, many families and groups of friends will decide to make a campfire to both keep warm and roast some delicious marshmallows. As much fun as this may seem, if you’re not careful it could become a danger so here are some tips and tricks to keep safe around your campfire.
Prepping your campfire area.
Before you start lighting your fire you need to make some preperations to keep it safe. The first thing you should do is to plan where your campfire will be. Once you have decided you must check with your local fire department to make sure it’s safe and to check if you need a permit to have a fire. You should also check the weather on the day, if it is a dry or windy day, we don’t recommend having your fire as this could blow the fire and take it out of your control. You should also check the weather on the day, if it is a dry or windy day we don’t recommend having your fire as this could blow the fire and take it out of your control.
Building your fire.
Now when you are actually building your fire you need to clear away things around the area that could easily burn such as dry leaves, sticks and litter and then surround the place of the fire with large rocks or bricks to keep it contained in a small space. Also make sure your fire is away from any buildings or large structures that could catch on fire easily.
Basic safety.
Don’t ever leave your campfire unattended at any time, if you need to leave it for whatever reason, make sure someone stays behind with the fire to make sure it doesn’t get out of control and turn into a danger fire. You must make sure to not burn any plastic or illegal items on the campfire like aerosol cans as they can explode causing injury to the people around it. Also, when roasting your marshmallows be very careful to not leave it over the fire for too long because if you are using a metal rod it can heat up quite quickly and burn or as sugar has a low melting point an overly heated marshmallow could burn you or catch on fire so be sure to help children with this. We recommend using wooden skewers or sticks to roast your marshmallows on as they won’t get as hot but make sure to keep it far enough away from the fire.
Lighting your fire.
When actually lighting your campfire collect 3 different pieces of wood from the area around you, pile some tinder in the middle of your campfire and surround it with kindling. Then stack a few sticks around it so it can catch fire and just keep adding sticks to build it up while still keeping your campfire quite small. Use matches or flint to light your fire as these are the safest methods, lighters can explode if they get too hot and they are full of flammable liquid. If your fire looks like it’s burning out add a few more small sticks or dry leaves to the top and sides to keep it burning but only a small amount to keep the fire contained and in you control.
Extinguishing your fire
Before you leave for home allow your fire to burn out naturally and then pour plenty or water over it. Mix up the ashes with a shovel or long thick stick and drown it with water again. Mix up for a few more minutes to make sure the fire is completely out. Also don’t ever use gasoline or flammable liquids to power your fire as this will restrict the effectiveness of using water to extinguish the fire.
