Campfires

Knowing how to handle fire means knowing how to keep it small, useful, and completely out when you're finished. The 1911 Handbook for Boys said “There are ways and ways of building a camp fire,” and Kephart's 1906 book gives a whole chapter to the campfire. Every step with a flame happens with a grown-up beside you.

For grown-ups: A grown-up is present for every lit fire, holds onto the matches, and decides whether conditions are right. Fires happen only where local rules allow them.

Things to try

In any order, at your own pace. Tick what you've tried if you like keeping track; ticks stay on this device.

1. Check the rules firstWith a grown-up, find out whether fires are allowed where you'll be. Check for burn bans and use only a fire pit, a grill, or an existing fire ring. A good goal: you can explain where and when your family is allowed to have a fire.
2. Learn what fire needsFire needs three things: heat, fuel, and air. Talk through how taking away any one of them puts a fire out. A good goal: you can name the three and give an example of removing each one.
3. Gather tinder, kindling, and fuelCollect dry tinder (dry grass, wood shavings), kindling (pencil-thin sticks), and fuel (sticks up to wrist-thick). Use only dead wood that's already on the ground, never branches from living trees. A good goal: you have three neat piles sorted by size.
4. Prepare the fire siteClear leaves and twigs from around the fire pit, and set a bucket of water and a shovel or stick for stirring within reach. A good goal: a grown-up says the site is ready.
5. Practice two fire lays (unlit)Build a teepee lay and a log-cabin lay around a tinder bundle without lighting them. Leave gaps so air can get in. A good goal: a grown-up agrees both lays would burn well.
6. Light and tend a small fireWith a grown-up, light your fire lay with a match. The old handbooks challenged readers to do it with just two matches. Add fuel a little at a time and keep the fire small. A good goal: you've kept a small, steady fire going for 20 minutes.
7. Put it out coldLet the fire burn down, then drown it with water, stir the ashes, and drown it again, until there is no smoke, steam or hissing. A grown-up checks it before anyone leaves.
8. Leave no tracePack out all trash, don't burn plastic or food scraps, and leave the fire ring cleaner than you found it. A good goal: no one could tell you'd been there except by the clean ring.
9. Show a grown-up the whole routineFrom checking the rules to putting the fire out, walk a grown-up through each step and explain why it matters.

Read about it in the old books

• 📖 1911 Handbook for Boys: Building a Camp Fire ↗
• 📖 Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft: The Camp-Fire ↗