Cautions

Who Is In Charge?

Since a campfire is a small production, whoever sets the fire is responsible for it untill he hands it over to somebody else.

For example: Tom prepares the fire while Bill prepares the food. Then Tom hands over the fire to Bill. When Bill is done cooking, he can give the fire over to the cleanup people, who probably want to heat some water for washing the utensils.

Preparations

General Preparations

• Make sure that the season and weather are right for a fire. Some regions have a "dry season", where the woods for miles around act like tinder, awaiting a spark to cause a wildfire. Even if the area is not particularly dry, high winds may drive the fire out of your control. If you are camping at a park, check with the ranger station.

• Bring necessary supplies and equipment for the fire.

• Bring emergency supplies that you hope to never use: a bucket of water and a first aid kit.

Fire Wood

In Southern California, it is fairly easy to find firewood in bundles at the supermarket. During the Summer, campers use it. During the Winter, some folks burn it in the fireplace.

Don't bring huge logs, unless you are planning to put them on the fire as-is. Chopping wood is more exercise than I care to get while camping.

If you have a choice of wood, use dry hardwoods to minimize smoke and sparks.

Think about how you plan to light the fire. Remember to bring tinder and small pieces of wood (twigs and slivers).

Site Preparations

Building The Fire

The Fire Pit

For a small campfire, this might be a circle of rocks. For a large bonfire, you need either high wall around the fire area, or a pit dug into the ground.

Many developed camping areas have official fire pits. Ask about them.

If you are camping in a park or developed campsite, do not build your own fire pit from local rocks. If there is no fire pit already available, you don't have a fire.

Stacking The Wood

Please note that the beautiful precise geometry of a well-laid fire is a transitory thing. It will look nice and be easy to light. But after the fire has been burning for a while, it will collapse into a mess of flaming logs, going this way and that.

A properly laid fire has a careful progression from tinder (something very easy to light), to small twigs (not so easy to light, but burns longer), to larger pieces of wood, to logs (burn a long time, but hard to light by themselves).

Traditional tinder includes birch bark and dried moss. A very effective modern tinder is dryer lint (if you dry a lot of cotton cloth).

Some layouts used for campfires are:

• teepee
• lean-to
• log cabin

The "teepee" is probably the best for a small campfire.

Accelerant

If you do a good job of laying your fire, with tinder and kindling, you shouldn't need any accelerant. I actually prefer to light campfires without the use of accelerants, which may have an objectional smell, require special handling and storage, and would contaminate a fire used for cooking.

If you are lazy, you can pour some BBQ lighter fluid over the wood and then light it carefully.

WARNINGS:

• Never add accelerant to a fire that is already burning! The fire may flash up and burn you.
• Depending on what you have used as accelerant, the fire might flash up quickly chen you light it. If you give the accelerant time to build up vapors, this is more likely. When lighting the fire, approach it carefully!

Lighting The Fire

Of course, the campfire should have been laid with a special spot that is easy to light, where you have easy access to the tinder.

If you really want to get fancy, you can light the fire with:

• sparks from flint and steel
• a magnifying glass
• bow and drill

Feeding The Fire

Since campfires are utilitarian, the person using the fire can be the one to feed it.

Putting Out The Fire

To be sure that the fire is out:

• Soak the fire with water.
• Stir the ashes.
• Soak it again!

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