Everything You Need to Know About Campfires

The scary stories and s’mores that are shared around campfires are some of the biggest reasons why most people enjoy spending time in the wild. These times create beautiful moments where friends and family members can share laughs and make memories under the stars, which is a big part of the whole camping experience.

If you are planning an outdoor trip, you’ll most likely want to share in this camping tradition and do all of the amazing things that make sleeping under the stars such a lively experience, campfires included.

However, you won’t be able to just arrive in the bush or forest and build a fire on a whim. Setting up a safe and sturdy campfire requires planning and preparation; in addition, most parks and wildlife areas typically have strict rules that govern the use of campfires. As such, you’ll also need to do a little bit of research and find out what these regulations are for your specific camping ground, then adhere to them religiously. This will help you keep both yourself, your friends and family, and the environment around you safe.

In this blog, we are going to talk about how to set up a good campfire, then outline a few tips that will be sure to help you maintain a safe flame.

How to Prepare for a Camp Fire

The very first thing that you’ll want to do when preparing to build a fire on your campsite is to find out whether the local area or park that you’re in permits fires in the first place. This can be done by taking the time to contact your local forest ranger, or by searching online. In addition, if you can use this time to find out what your local area's regulations are vis-a-vis fires, this will help you better prepare yourself to abide by said rules.

How to Set Up a Safe Fire

Once you’ve determined that a campfire is permitted on your campsite, and reviewed the rules you’ll need to follow when setting on up (such as the size limitations), you should proceed to plan for the actual fire that you’re going to build. For this, it’s important to take a few things into consideration:

Make Sure that you bring your own wood and kindling to the site, so you don’t destroy the bush trying to make some; this will help you better respect the sanity of the environment that you’re camping in.

Make sure that your fire is properly warded off from the environment by packing a few rocks and some bags of sand; these things will help you stop your fire from spreading if the worst-case scenario happens. The better option would be to bring your very own prebuilt fire pit. If you’re looking for a good quality portable firepit that will provide you with the best possible bang for your buck, you should try our beautiful Steel Firepit.

Do not use flammable liquid to start or increase the size of your fire. This can get out of control too easily and become dangerous. Most camp stores and supermarkets sell firelighters to assist in the lighting of fire, so make sure that you purchase these.

When packing up, make sure the fire is extinguished safely. Pour water slowly onto the embers from a safe distance. This is quite necessary because throwing large quantities of water onto a fire will cause it to spit and hiss out heat and ash, which can be dangerous.

Never completely bury a fire. Doing so would cause it to smoulder underground, which could possibly re-ignite the fire and create a hazard for those who use the campsite after you.

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