One of the segments on the TV show I mentioned will be about building a safe campfire in the wilderness. I didn't see much on the subject in the Knowledge Archives but if I missed it I'd appreciate a pointer. Then I decided to take a look at "wikiHow" to see how this was presented there...

Build-a-Campfire

I didn't like some of their advice much and these parts really bugged me.



Among those suggested:



The "model rocket engines" suggestion is incredible. I have some experience (when I was 12 or 13 years old) pounding the powder out of one of those and igniting it and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, especially as a means to start a fire in the wilderness.



And nowhere did they mention checking with the NF Service or local Fire Dept or other agency or the internet to find out the current Fire Weather Threat Forecast, which is something I always do.

NOAA Fire Weather Threat Prediction

Anyway, I think I'll start by writing down some basic safety rules, then move on to finding fuel, then starting a fire, maintaining it, extinguishing it, and restoring the area.

We'll speaking to the Ozarks specifically but still I thought it might be best to run it by you all and maybe we could come up with some basic guidelines and then perhaps some more specific to geographic locations and weather conditions and post it here.

Thanks,

Bill

Proper and safe fire building is a very controversial subject. I am sure there will be a good discussion on this one with disagreements. Most will disagree on what exactly is LNT with fire building. In fact, there is an ongoing. super long, discussion at BPL called the Carbon Flame War that started with fires. Some say that fires at all are not LNT. Others say that it is only LNT if it doesn't touch the ground. Personally, I have watched a few shows done by Ray Mears were he talks about fire building and extinguishing, and I think he does the best job that I have seen. He basically says to clear an area to bare earth, use a small fire, extinguish with water completely until you can sift your hands through it, then disperse the ashes completely, and recover area like it was before you came.

Strike-Anywhere-Matches are getting hard to find. They are considered dangerous.

I have a bunch of Altoid tins with wet/dry emery cloth glued to them that are pretty worthless without strike-anywhere-matches.

I finally found some in a local farm store. I bought two boxes.

Here's the first draft. This is based on what I've learned over the years and currently practice here in the Ozarks.

Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if something needs to be corrected here. And any tips, suggestions, and criticisms are much appreciated.

=============

Campfires are legal in most of the National Parks and Wilderness areas here in the Ozarks where backpacking and camping are allowed but there are some rules and guidlines that you need to follow when you want to make a campfire.

The first thing to do is check to make sure campfires are legal where you'll be camping.

The next thing to do is check the Fire Weather Threat Level for the area you'll be camping. To do that you can go to the National Weather Service's web site at http://www.noaa.gov and get the forecast for your location, then click on the "Hazardous Weather" link or call the park service or fire department for the area you'll be going.

If the threat level is low and it's legal where your going then build a campfire and enjoy it.

If the threat level is high don't chance it even if it is legal where you're camping. You'll still be held responsible for damage and harm done by a wildfire you've started.

A campfire is not a "Bonfire". It really should be as small as practical for the people using it. It must always be under close watch and control. A small campfire is easier to build, maintain, control, and extinguish and it's less work to restore the area once you're done with it.

It's also not a good idea to try and build a fire that will be exposed to strong wind. Wind can scatter hot coals that burn whatever they land on, including people, tents, gear, and pets.

When you're ready to build your fire you want to select a safe location. Find a flat area that is open and at least 8 feet away from any trees or dry brush in all directions and is calm and sheltered from strong wind.

Clear away all flammable material (dry leaves, tall dry grass, sticks and twigs) from an area about 3 feet in diameter. If you can, dig a 12-20 inch bowl shaped hole about 2 inches deep in the center of the cleared area to make a fire pit.

You can surround the hole with dry rocks to make a fire ring if you like. Don't use rocks that are soaking wet, like those in a creek or river. They can hold water and crack or explode when heated and send hot pieces or rock flying at you.

Now you need to get fuel. There are three kinds of fuel used to make a campfire. Tinder, Kindling, and Firewood.

Tinder is the first thing you try to get burning when you want to start a fire. It needs to light off with just a match or spark.

You can make and bring tinder from things you have at home for little or no cost. Your Clothes Dryer lint makes great tinder. You can also dab cotton balls in Vaseline and keep them in a ziplock bag.

Another great source of tinder here in the Ozarks is the bark of fallen Red Cedar trees. Take a knife, or even a sharp edged piece of rock and scrape the bark to create a fine "wool" and gather up a several big handfuls and set it aside.

Kindling is set on fire with your tinder. Its purpose is to get your firewood burning.

Kindling is gathered from small dry twigs that are lying around. They should be about the thickness of toothpicks to as thick as a pencil. If you're in the forest kindling should be easy to find. Old fallen branches are a great source for finding all you need in one spot. Gather up a bunch of kindling, at least enough to fill your fire pit, and set it aside.

Firewood, for campfire purposes, is gathered from larger branches that have falled from trees and sat long enough to dry out. It should be from the thicknes of your thumb to no bigger than your wrist, or let's say, a baseball bat. Long branches should be broken into lenghts that are easy to handle. About two feet long works fine. If a branch is too thick to break it's too big for a campfire. You should never saw or break branches off live trees. They don't burn very well, sometimes not at all, and live trees need these branches to stay alive.

Gather up a stack of wood that's big enough to last you for as long as you'll need your fire going. A tight stack about 3 feet long and 2 feet high last a long time for me, your milage may vary. A surplus is nice to have ready to restart your fire in the morning, so keep that in mind when you gather your fuel.

To make your fire you should line your fire pit with a layer of firewood first. Then loosely stack a mound of kindling on top of that. Then place some tinder on top of that, then another loose layer of kindling and tinder. Finally, make a teepee or log cabin style stack of your thinnest firewood closely around your mound of tinder and kindling.

To start your fire light the tinder on the top of the mound. Once it's started to burn wait until your kindling is burning good and then keep adding more kindling until your firewood is burning. Add firewood as needed to keep it going.

To restart your fire first check to see if there are any embers. Embers are small pieces of glowing wood. You can place your hand above the ashes when the fire has died to check to see if there is still heat coming from buried embers. If you feel heat place a handful of tinder on top of the embers and loose pile of kindling on top of the tinder and wait a bit. Chances are it will ignite into flames. When it does place more kindling and then small pieces of firewood as it starts up again.

To extinguish your campfire you can douse it throughly with water, stir the coals, and repeat until it is completely out. Or you can let the fire burn down, then spread the coals around in your firepit and let them burn completely out while you wait.

If you build a campfire in the wilderness you need to restore the area before you leave. To do this you must make sure your fire is completely extinguished.

When you're positive your fire is completely out and no live coals remain take the rocks you've used for your fire ring and scatter them back to where you found them, scatter the cold or wet ashes from the fire throughout the cleared area you made around your fire pit and scoop the dirt you removed to make your fire pit back into the pit. Cover the area with the dry leaves, sticks, and twigs you removed.

LNT is tough to define when it comes to fires. This has a lot to do with location and I think it should be taught that way.

I see that I'm using a method very close to what Ray Mears suggests. It's likely I learned from him in a hand-me-down fashion.

When backpacking alone I use a very small fire and huddle over it. I use sticks about 3/4" thick for fuel and feed them in at a consistent pace to keep a nice even heat going. I use a very small amount of wood. When I compare this to when I camp with friends I am always amazed at how much wood we burn.

I know locals here that won't even consider a small fire. There's just too much easy to get wood here to burn for that.

At least most of them have stopped burning tires and mattresses

I agree that you've described the best method for a low-impact fire.

I gave up fires long ago because, to do them right, they're just too much like work. (Yes, I still know how to build one, and would do so in emergencies. But for casual use or everyday cooking, the time and effort just isn't worth it to me.)

Bill, I think you did a good job on describing how. Thanks for the effort and time.

That's the thing I love about the internet, and internet advice on unmoderated "wikis".

I can't wait to walk up on the newb with the aftermath or partial results of starting a fire on a blue poly tarp with a rocket motor, road flare, and 9 volt batter with steel wool.

It'll certainly make for good entertainment, and even better trail stories than lawn chairs on backpacks.

Isn't there a Pat McManus story about building a cannon with sewer pipe and black powder that ends with the cop coming up and asking, "Are you boys smoking?" To which the reply was, "Yes, but a little while ago we were on fire."?

Kind of the same thing, I suppose.

Yes, the classic Poof - No Eyebrows series. The joys of black powder!

(P.S. There's a diameter of oilfield pipe you can get in alberta that is the exact diameter of a coke can. Coke cans can be filled with quick mix concrete. They make a nice red streak flying across a field. Ask me how I know this and I'll deny everything...)

Rocket motors? Any mention of the size?

An Estes D-12 or C-6/7 ought to get things going, across 60 or 70 acres.

I've mentioned this before and I seem to be the only one doing this, but I make bungees out of bicycle inner tube strips. A 1" square of inner tube, lit on one corner, burns hot, long, safe, and waterproof. Try it. Your fire starter then does double duty as a bungee. Bic butane and paraffin dipped kitchen matches to get things stared. Building the actual fire is a learned skill best tried near home, when it's cold and wet.

. . . and then there's that missing outtake from Bear Grills' show when he was blowing on his fire to get it going (right after a production assistant passed him the bottle of high-proof rum for a quick swig before they turned the camera on.)

Bill, that looks like a good writeup. The only comment I would have is that it might be good to give some specifics on who to contact to find out about fire restrictions in the various areas.

You and Glen had me rolling on the floor I love those old McManus stories.

I never lit off the rocket fuel, which I think I pounded out of an Estes C-6 cartridge when I was about 12 years old. I was too cautious to get it lit. I was lighting cardboard matches and tossing them at the pile of powder from a distance and made a few direct hits, but the matches fizzled and the powder didn't light up.

It was just getting dark outside and I was ready to give it up when an older kid I called "Stretch" came walking up and gave me the classic "Get out of the way, you don't know what you're doing. Watch This" line.

Stretch always seemed to hate me, so I didn't like him much either, but I tried to tell him that the key to success was standing way back when you lit it off. He ignored me and proceeded to tear the match heads off about a dozen matches and pile them on top of the powder. Then he bent over to light them. I started backing up and tried to warn him again but he told me to "Just shut up".

His plan worked. The match heads lit and in an instant the powder lit off too. It created a huge flash that lit the entire park and all the homes around it like it was daylight.

When my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw Stretch standing there smoldering a little, his clothes and face were blackened, and his eyes were wide open. He looked fairly well shocked with the outcome of his plan.

I started laughing and he probably wanted to stomp me, but he just cussed and grumbled that it wasn't funny and his mom was going to be really mad when she saw him "All burned up like this" and started walking home.

So, did Stretch drop the "St" in later years, and become the friend and mentor of a guy named Pat?

I had a similar experience with a batch of home-made black powder when I was a youngster. The neighborhood bully was the one minus eyelashes, eyebrows and the hair on the front half of his head. I think it also got his whiskers; he was one of those types that are shaving at age eleven. Sometimes lady justice smiles down at us mere mortals; I still have a good laugh whenever I think of this.

First off we seem to have confused safe, legal and LNT.

Legal is legal - nothing more or less than the combined opinions of a bunch of bureaucrats, so like that makes it moral or something?

Safe means what? Safe to you or not burning down the woods? Whats a safe fire anyway?

LNT is also a very fuzzy attitude opinion. Like replacing any turned rocks in a stream to their original spot with the same orientation, you should photograph the spot where you build your fire so it will look exactly the same when you leave. To me LNT means "leave no trash". Here in Oregon we burn what other people call "habitat" to keep our houses warm and the size of the fire we build camping is no consequence at all unless we're in a well used area.

Anyway to finish. Safe, legal and LNT are all simply attitudes and relatively meaningless, not fixed in the galactic mindset as "real truth", but merely the opinions of some other supposedly knowledgeable benevolent people. Smokey the Bear is responsible for really really bad forest destruction from forest fires that rage out of control after a century of fire suppression. They actually took down Smokey for a while but now they say hes a new bear with the right message. Seen an "only you can prevent forest fires" sign in the last decade?
Jim

Jim your points are valid but I think there's still a need for basic guidelines for those who haven't learned the skills for building a campfire.

I would define a "Safe Campfire" as one that doesn't burn what is not intended to be burnt, people and forest would be on the top of that list, toasted bread would not.

Here's why these skills need to be taught: When my daughter was about 15 years old she went camping on the banks of the Buffalo River in Arkansas with a group of friends. When she arrived at the campsite there were a dozen boys and a few girls sitting there in the cold and complete darkness because none of them knew how to build a campfire. She got one going in a few minutes after sending the boys out to scrounge for wood. Think about that.. Rural teen boys that don't know how to build a campfire. That's just not right.

A campfire is fine and legal in the Ozarks, but I've also watched a guy shoot a tiny bottle rocket off in the foothills of the Los Padres NF and set the mountainside on fire within seconds after it landed. You wouldn't want to build a campfire there, and there is a law against it, I'm sure.

I nearly always build a campfire and cook over it when I'm in the forest here. For me, that's one of the best things about spending the night in the forest. I spent a lot of nights in the Los Padres NF too, but I ate cold sandwiches and brought a lantern instead.

I agree that LNT is fuzzy and I also think it is used as a stick by a group of arrogant snobs to berate others.

There are about 4-6 regularly used campsites along the creek in a 15,000 acre wilderness area near me here. The rules state that you should not camp in places where campsites have made an impact. But these sites are small, handy, and spread out, and people have been using them for 5-6 decades. Anyway, people will collect rocks and make a fire ring and benches. Then one of the purest will come and tear them down and scatter the rocks. I've seen them carry big huge rocks several hundred feet away from the campsites to discourage others from using them.

My point is, together these few campsites contain 90% of the camping pressure in this wilderness to less than 1/4 of an acre and that is surely a very good thing. I'm pretty sure the NFS knows this and that's why they don't enforce the rule.

People lacking common sense often substitute it with rules.

Bill

Bill,
Well Geez, I do remember the time that my model space shuttle lost its tail 100 yards up and did a perfect mid course flip onto its back and right into the dry weeds around Sunnyvale dump.

I was a model rocket-er and an amateur rocket-er. As an amateur I made my own fuel and engines (1964) and they were much more powerful than model rockets. In fact they were basically bombs with rocket nozzles and fins and designed to fly in a straight line, but with no warheads, which means they went faster cause they were lighter.

Here's a fun one. Get an old military 8 foot weather balloon and fill it [deleted] with natural gas. Then attach a 3 foot piece of slow fuse and light it and let the balloon go. (this is best done outside!)

But my very favorite unsafe fire starting practice for rainy weather is this, and you have to be in a place where you can collect a bunch of small branches like 1/4" to 3/8" and make a pile about a foot deep, then light your camp stove and lift the edge of the pile of wood and slip the stove under it. The heat of the stove will soon dry a vertical column of fuel and it will bur and the heat will mostly rise and if its spitting sleet at you the heat will become great enough to boil the sleet asit hits, exactly at that point you have to remove your camp stove or it can explode.

Heh I watched the movie Everest and they had a good scene where they burnt a tent in a campstove backfire. It was VERY impressive...

I think beside the obvious that most people do not carry rocket fuel (except ESBIT) camping and in general we're talking about matches or BIC as a primary source of combustion, so the biggest danger is probably collecting fire wood, or starting a fire on forest floor that continues to burn after you think its out.

Bill, no how to start a fire is another thing, very different building a safe fire. An I must add - the wind speed and the flammability of the surrounding area have to be the determining factors. And Bill, I use my Bibler hanging stove to make my tent into a sauna in the winter, and I cook in the vestible but with a coleman xcannister stove.
Jim YMMV

This is a very good write up Bill although it is opposite of how I build fires and teach our Scouts to do it.

I like to build a tipi style fire with one side open. I place a stick in the ground at a 45degree angle and lay the fire underneath it starting with tinder, then kindling, then firewood. Here in East Texas we teach the guys to find lighter pine (resin filled) and use it to pull the flames up from the tinder into the kindling and into the firewood.

The one thing that is always a struggle, and you might want to bold in your write up, is teaching them to LOOSELY lay the tinder and kindling. They typically want to keep packing it on and don't realize that the fire needs air to breathe/burn.

We'll be going out again in two weeks and I look forward to giving your method a try. This past trip, it took them 45 minutes to get a fire going but they finally succeeded. Of course, it had been raining for 2 weeks! It was a good lesson in where to look to find dry wood.

Thanks for write up.

Tango

When I was a kid growing up in England, my dad told me how the Aborigines in Australia started fires using a bow and a straight tree branch. I thought I might give it a try and so I fashioned a bow from a tree branch and cut another one to form an arrow of sorts. The string went around the arrow. Placing the tip on a block of wood covered in paper kindling and holding the other end with an egg cup I began to work the arrow back and forth. To my surprise it actually worked. The friction created was enough to ignite the paper in no time. I thought I was going to burn down the addition but I got the fire put out in time. Never tried that again indoors.

Howie

Thank you, I did miss that and it is important. I've been entertained several times watching friends pile wood on a campfire until they've completely smothered it.

The NFS reviewed our suggestions and approved them with the exception of using rocks so we'll remove that part from our demonstration.

We have a big surplus of rocks in the Ozarks and when used around a campfire I lean firewood on them to provide air space under the wood and sometimes to place a small grate to cook on.

Larger sticks will accomplish the same thing so I guess I'll make that change in my routine, though I don't see much harm in using a few rocks for this. Shoot, just 5-6 out of the 20-30 you have to move to set-up a one man tent is more than enough

I don't know why building fire rings is such a big deal. On a few hikes on the pct I found a few, I find it kinda nice to find one. Even when I bushed wacked to places I would find them.
As far a safe I dont think any fire is safe. I still build them at most spots I camp in, rocks or no rocks. Best you can do is clear a spot directly around the fire.

I am a trail adopter and scatter fire rings often. There are five common sites within sight of each other. I scatter the rings in three of the sites to direct use to the two sites that are already most heavly impacted.

In a local Wilderness Area that are several fairly well developed hunter's camp off trail. I leave those intact. Not all fire rings are created equal.