Campfire safety

Before you build a fire

• Ask whether you need a fire at all. A camp stove is often better for cooking and leaves no trace.
• Check the rules first: permits, fire bans, and the land manager's rules always come before your plans. Find out the fire danger rating.
• Get your leader's OK. Cub Scouts build and light fires only with an adult supervising.
• Use an existing fire ring or fire pan when there is one, away from tents, trees, and overhanging branches.
• Clear everything that can burn from around the fire site. Your Firem'n Chit rules say how far.
• Have water and a shovel ready before you strike a match.

Tinder, kindling, and fuel

1. 1

   Tinder

   Catches the first flame: dry grass, wood shavings, or the papery bark of dead and down wood. Gather a double handful.

2. 2

   Kindling

   Dry, dead sticks from pencil-thin to thumb-thick. It takes the flame from the tinder and gets the fire going.

3. 3

   Fuel

   Bigger pieces, about wrist-thick, that keep the fire burning. Use only dead and down wood you can break by hand, and only as much as you need.

Three fire lays

A fire lay is how you arrange the wood before you light it. Each one starts with tinder in the middle.

• Tepee

  Lean kindling around the tinder in a cone, then lean fuel wood around that. It lights easily and burns hot and fast — good for getting a fire going.

• Log cabin

  Build a small tepee, then stack fuel around it in layers, crisscrossing like the walls of a cabin. It burns evenly and makes good coals for cooking.

• Lean-to

  Lay a bigger piece of wood on the ground with the tinder beside it, and lean kindling against it over the tinder. The big log blocks the wind.

Lighting and tending it

1. 1

   Light low, upwind

   Kneel on the side the wind is coming from and light the tinder at the bottom, so the flame climbs into the kindling. Put used matches in the fire.

2. 2

   Feed it slowly

   Add kindling, then fuel, a little at a time. A fire needs air as much as wood — piling on too much smothers it.

3. 3

   Never leave it alone

   Someone watches the fire every minute it's burning. Keep it small, and keep everyone a safe distance away.

Putting it out cold

1. 1

   Drown it

   Let the fire burn down to ash if you can, then pour on plenty of water — not just on the red coals, but over all the ashes.

2. 2

   Stir it

   Stir the ashes and coals with a stick or shovel so the water reaches everything. Scrape any burned pieces of wood.

3. 3

   Drown it again

   Pour on more water. Keep going until the hissing stops.

4. 4

   Feel it: the cold-out test

   Hold the back of your hand near the ashes. If you feel no heat, carefully touch them. If anything is still warm, start over. Leave only when it's cold out, then clean up the fire site.