Observing Outdoor Bonfire Safety The summer of 2012 will be remembered for its numerous wildfires. They ravaged the country this year, burning everything in their paths. Some raged within cities, damaging houses and property in their wake. Others wreaked havoc through the natural vegetation of the mountain side.
What Starts Wildfires It doesn’t take much to start a wildfire. In some cases, something as simple as a hot coal left in a pit can do the trick. The coal is hot enough to resist the initial touch of the water and retains its heat. If given some time next to something dry, it can ignite a blaze from its internal heat. It happens to unsuspecting residents cooking in the backyard. Even something as simple as shooting a target on a mountainside can spark a blaze. One careless shooting adventure damaged several hillsides this year, encroaching upon the safety of the nearby communities. You can never be too careful when it comes to messing with fire.
How to Keep a Bonfire Safe It’s perfectly acceptable to have a bonfire in someone’s back yard in Sacramento, CA, even during dry spells. Just be careful how you handle it. Build a big enough pit to hold the size of the fire you intend to make. If you build it too small, the flames will have free reign to lap up the vegetation close by. Once it reaches dead plants, it has the opportunity to spread quickly. Contain it. Don’t let the flames grow larger than the pit you’ve made for it. This will help you prevent the possibility that a stray ember will drift to something dry and flammable. Build a safe fire. The internal structure is a key element to this. Make it short, and make it strong. As it rages in the pit, it severely weakens the structure of the wood that fuels it. You’ll expose yourself, your friends and the world to the dangers of the inferno. One tumble of a tall campfire could bring the flames outside the pit and onto you, your property or nature’s floor.
Next thing you know, you’re all running for the hills with a blaze hot on your heels. Whenever you put one out, be sure to make several passes with water over the hot embers.
Embers Are Enough As stated before, hot embers left alone have the chance of igniting again. Have you ever been reignited a fire six hours later by simply blowing into the embers for a few minutes? That means that the coals kept energy inside that is hot enough to begin anew the blaze of last night. You can never pour enough water on top of these embers. Pour it until the steam stops gushing out. Stir the embers around and then pour more water on them. Wait for the steam to abate again and then rinse and repeat. Most pits take several passes of the water to completely put out. They’re resilient and powerful forces. If you created it, have the responsibility of completely defusing it, to keep from causing fire damage.