Safety Tips For Building Firepits
By Eric Knudsen
A crackling campfire is the focal point of any campsite. It's the hub of activity, like an outdoor kitchen.
And like a domestic kitchen, the campfire is the social center, of the campsite, the place where friends and families gather to share a hot meal, swap stories, and reflect on the days' events.
Everything seems to taste better when cooked over a campfire; whether it's freshly-caught panfish, rolled in cornmeal and fried in a cast iron skillet --- or, freshly-killed game, like wild rabbit, dressed, skewered, and slow-roasted on a spit. Even a plate full of store-bought hot dogs and hamburgers tastes better outdoors, when they're grilled to perfection over glowing-hot coals.
Setting up a campsite includes making a fire pit; a centrally located, ring-shaped area where the campfire is built. This is where the campsite meals are prepared, and cooked over hot coals and open flames. Before building a campfire, it's best to create a fire pit.
A fire pit makes the job of building a fire much easier. It will make the fire easier to light, stoke, maintain, and extinguish when you're finished with it. The ring, or border of the fire pit will also help contain your campfire better, making the fire itself --- and surrounding area --- much safer, as opposed to a having a campfire without this feature.
Basically, a well-made fire pit will help you build a better campfire. Making one is a relatively simple procedure. Having a fire pit is like having a built-in safety feature for your campfire. That's why no camp-site should be without one.
And like a domestic kitchen, the campfire is the social center, of the campsite, the place where friends and families gather to share a hot meal, swap stories, and reflect on the days' events.
Everything seems to taste better when cooked over a campfire; whether it's freshly-caught panfish, rolled in cornmeal and fried in a cast iron skillet --- or, freshly-killed game, like wild rabbit, dressed, skewered, and slow-roasted on a spit. Even a plate full of store-bought hot dogs and hamburgers tastes better outdoors, when they're grilled to perfection over glowing-hot coals.
Setting up a campsite includes making a fire pit; a centrally located, ring-shaped area where the campfire is built. This is where the campsite meals are prepared, and cooked over hot coals and open flames. Before building a campfire, it's best to create a fire pit.
A fire pit makes the job of building a fire much easier. It will make the fire easier to light, stoke, maintain, and extinguish when you're finished with it. The ring, or border of the fire pit will also help contain your campfire better, making the fire itself --- and surrounding area --- much safer, as opposed to a having a campfire without this feature.
Basically, a well-made fire pit will help you build a better campfire. Making one is a relatively simple procedure. Having a fire pit is like having a built-in safety feature for your campfire. That's why no camp-site should be without one.
Here's how to make one:
MAKING THE FIRE PIT
MAKING THE FIRE PIT
You'll need a small spade or shovel, in order to scoop up soil and make a shallow pit. Most camping supply stores and outdoor stores carry neat little fold-up camp shovels. You can also find these items at Army surplus outlets. The cost is around $10.
First of all, you'll need to find the relative center of your campsite. Select a clearing in the woods that's fairly flat and level. This clearing should be roughly 400 to 500 square feet in surface area, with no low-hanging limbs nearby that could potentially catch fire.
Once you've decided on an appropriate area for your campsite, mark off the relative center --- you can do this by simply drawing an “X” in the soil, or by placing a stick in the center spot.
Now, draw a circle in the soil with a stick, or lay several sticks in a circular pattern, to create a rounded outline for the pit. Make this circle between three and four feet in diameter. With your camp shovel, scoop out four to six inches of soil from inside the circular pattern, and distribute the soil evenly along the outside edge of the circle, so that the soil is mounded up. Tamp down the area inside the circular border with your feet and compact the mounded border with the shovel. Or, just use your hands.
BE CAREFUL ABOUT USING STONES AS A BORDER
You should now have a shallow pit, with a border of compacted soil --- this is the “fire ring” for your campfire. Do not use river stones (cobbles stones) or any highly sedimentary rocks to border your fire pit. These kinds of stones can explode when exposed to periods of intense heat, and can cause serious injury.
Instead, use field stones --- these will consist of most any stones that you find embedded in the soil, but away from water, like river banks and stream beds. Field stones can stand higher temperatures due to their composition. Though you can use them as a border, you shouldn't place any type of stone directly into a fire.
With the fire pit ready, you can now go ahead and build your campfire. Gather up plenty of small, dry twigs and make a small pile in the center of the pit. If you have some, lay scraps of paper in there as well. Make a small tee-pee, using larger pieces of found fire wood --- logs, dead tree limbs, etc.
Once you've got a base fire started, continue adding wood until it fills about one quarter of the area within the fire pit. After an hour or two, you will have a considerable accumulation of hot coals in the base of the pit. You can then rake some of these coals away from the center of the pit and over to the border. These coals will provide an excellent heat source for cooking with a cast iron skillet, or for roasting meats and veggies.
This kind of heat is safer to cook over than fluctuating flames. It will provide an even, controlled cooking temperature, and you won't be apt to burn your food. For safety's sake, always keep a bucket of water handy, near your campfire, just in case the fire gets out of control for some reason.
The method of building a fire pit (described here) is intended to be one of the safest.
However, it's important to remember that there are other factors that can affect the control of a campfire.
DEALING WITH WINDY CONDITIONS
Wind can certainly be a problem at times, and if you fail to pay close attention to your campfire during windy periods, you may find yourself battling to keep it under control. You really have no idea how quickly a stiff breeze can spread a fire, until you see it happen first hand. It's truly amazing how fast this can happen --- and you don't want to be a witness to this by finding out the hard way!
The best way to handle a campfire when it's windy is to build your fire pit accordingly.
Simply make the pit deeper --- like say, 8 to 10 inches deep. While removing more soil from the pit, you'll obviously have more soil to build up around the pit. Keep in mind that you will need some air circulating in the area around your fire, so don't make your pit too deep. If wind is still a problem, try building up a screen around half of the fire pit, using a combination of stones and soil. Build up these materials in sort of an arch, about a foot tall. This earthen screen will act as a wind-break, and keep your fire in better control.
Better control means a safer fire, and thus, a safer campsite.
You could also create a makeshift fire screen using aluminum foil and sticks. With a fire screen in place next to your fire pit, you won't have hot ashes blowing all over the place, which can spark brush fires and set tents ablaze.
The biggest fire hazard of all is the campfire that doesn't get extinguished properly. You have to use plenty of water (5 to 10 gallons is not too much) and saturate the area inside the fire pit completely. Stir the ashes with your camp shovel, and douse the pit again with more water. Continue stirring ashes and dousing the pit with water until you've extinguished every trace of that campfire --- every last, smoldering ember.
Don't leave the area until you're positive that the fire is out. That means you shouldn't see any smoke. To play it safe, toss a few buckets of water around the outside perimeter of the fire ring, too, just in case any stray hot coals found their way outside the fire ring.
Take a brief amount of time to dig out a simple fire pit before building a campfire; it's the best way to keep control over a campfire. You'll have a much easier time building and maintaining the fire, and the added benefit of easier cooking will help make the overall camping experience more enjoyable. Anyway you look at it, a fire pit just makes sense.
Remember that famous cartoon bear in the “Forest Council” commercials? His name was “Smokey”, and he had a simple, but very important message; “Only you can prevent forest fires”. And then he would point his finger right at you. His message was clear and concise.
Nobody seems to know what happened to 'Ol Smokey, but one thing's for sure; his message was timeless. Remember his words of wisdom the next time you're out in the woods, camping and enjoying the light of a glowing campfire.
First of all, you'll need to find the relative center of your campsite. Select a clearing in the woods that's fairly flat and level. This clearing should be roughly 400 to 500 square feet in surface area, with no low-hanging limbs nearby that could potentially catch fire.
Once you've decided on an appropriate area for your campsite, mark off the relative center --- you can do this by simply drawing an “X” in the soil, or by placing a stick in the center spot.
Now, draw a circle in the soil with a stick, or lay several sticks in a circular pattern, to create a rounded outline for the pit. Make this circle between three and four feet in diameter. With your camp shovel, scoop out four to six inches of soil from inside the circular pattern, and distribute the soil evenly along the outside edge of the circle, so that the soil is mounded up. Tamp down the area inside the circular border with your feet and compact the mounded border with the shovel. Or, just use your hands.
BE CAREFUL ABOUT USING STONES AS A BORDER
You should now have a shallow pit, with a border of compacted soil --- this is the “fire ring” for your campfire. Do not use river stones (cobbles stones) or any highly sedimentary rocks to border your fire pit. These kinds of stones can explode when exposed to periods of intense heat, and can cause serious injury.
Instead, use field stones --- these will consist of most any stones that you find embedded in the soil, but away from water, like river banks and stream beds. Field stones can stand higher temperatures due to their composition. Though you can use them as a border, you shouldn't place any type of stone directly into a fire.
With the fire pit ready, you can now go ahead and build your campfire. Gather up plenty of small, dry twigs and make a small pile in the center of the pit. If you have some, lay scraps of paper in there as well. Make a small tee-pee, using larger pieces of found fire wood --- logs, dead tree limbs, etc.
Once you've got a base fire started, continue adding wood until it fills about one quarter of the area within the fire pit. After an hour or two, you will have a considerable accumulation of hot coals in the base of the pit. You can then rake some of these coals away from the center of the pit and over to the border. These coals will provide an excellent heat source for cooking with a cast iron skillet, or for roasting meats and veggies.
This kind of heat is safer to cook over than fluctuating flames. It will provide an even, controlled cooking temperature, and you won't be apt to burn your food. For safety's sake, always keep a bucket of water handy, near your campfire, just in case the fire gets out of control for some reason.
The method of building a fire pit (described here) is intended to be one of the safest.
However, it's important to remember that there are other factors that can affect the control of a campfire.
DEALING WITH WINDY CONDITIONS
Wind can certainly be a problem at times, and if you fail to pay close attention to your campfire during windy periods, you may find yourself battling to keep it under control. You really have no idea how quickly a stiff breeze can spread a fire, until you see it happen first hand. It's truly amazing how fast this can happen --- and you don't want to be a witness to this by finding out the hard way!
The best way to handle a campfire when it's windy is to build your fire pit accordingly.
Simply make the pit deeper --- like say, 8 to 10 inches deep. While removing more soil from the pit, you'll obviously have more soil to build up around the pit. Keep in mind that you will need some air circulating in the area around your fire, so don't make your pit too deep. If wind is still a problem, try building up a screen around half of the fire pit, using a combination of stones and soil. Build up these materials in sort of an arch, about a foot tall. This earthen screen will act as a wind-break, and keep your fire in better control.
Better control means a safer fire, and thus, a safer campsite.
You could also create a makeshift fire screen using aluminum foil and sticks. With a fire screen in place next to your fire pit, you won't have hot ashes blowing all over the place, which can spark brush fires and set tents ablaze.
The biggest fire hazard of all is the campfire that doesn't get extinguished properly. You have to use plenty of water (5 to 10 gallons is not too much) and saturate the area inside the fire pit completely. Stir the ashes with your camp shovel, and douse the pit again with more water. Continue stirring ashes and dousing the pit with water until you've extinguished every trace of that campfire --- every last, smoldering ember.
Don't leave the area until you're positive that the fire is out. That means you shouldn't see any smoke. To play it safe, toss a few buckets of water around the outside perimeter of the fire ring, too, just in case any stray hot coals found their way outside the fire ring.
Take a brief amount of time to dig out a simple fire pit before building a campfire; it's the best way to keep control over a campfire. You'll have a much easier time building and maintaining the fire, and the added benefit of easier cooking will help make the overall camping experience more enjoyable. Anyway you look at it, a fire pit just makes sense.
Remember that famous cartoon bear in the “Forest Council” commercials? His name was “Smokey”, and he had a simple, but very important message; “Only you can prevent forest fires”. And then he would point his finger right at you. His message was clear and concise.
Nobody seems to know what happened to 'Ol Smokey, but one thing's for sure; his message was timeless. Remember his words of wisdom the next time you're out in the woods, camping and enjoying the light of a glowing campfire.
___________________________________________________________________
Eric Knudsen is a freelance writer and an avid outdoorsman, living in Upstate New York.
Eric Knudsen is a freelance writer and an avid outdoorsman, living in Upstate New York.
