Putting Out Campfires

We usually have a morning fire with small wood. We use the last shovel of coals down the pit dunny. And the fire trench gets buried - with a trench, theres little evidence left of you having been there and its easy to bury.

Gday mate

I reckon the best is a rectangular fire pit 20 to 30 cms deep and toss the removed dirt/sand in a mound to the side. When breaking camp let the fire die right down and leave it for the last thing to do before leaving then fill it back in, cant even tell it was there.

When we have enough water I always douse the coals with water till it stops steaming. If in a place where there is not enough water for this, we don't have a morning fire. As a result the coals are substantially cooled overnight (we normally don't have a big fire - it's a waste of wood, that others including native animals can use. Also, If we have to carry wood, it is even more important to preserve.

Only exception to this is if we are in a camp ground with proper concrete or similar fireplaces.

On a couple of occasions when the coals have still had too much heat in them, I've dug a hole and burried them with at least 6 inches of cover (or put them in the hole from the Thunderbox if there is one).

Just covering with sand is real bad. When in the Kimberley last year, we were told of a small child who got very serious burns to the feet from walking on a fire place that had been covered with sand. There was apparantly no way it could have been detected until it was walked on. The person who caused the injury would be blistfully unaware (unless you are reading this of course).

Gday Val

Generally with water and don't bury, most spots have semi - established fire spots with rocks etc around them. Water shortage for this task is always readily available, as a bucket to store grey water in from the dishes etc is used most of the time. Shower water is also a good option - we usually stand in a 40l elcheapo storage tub

Cheers andrew

If there is plenty of water available then use water then back fill the fire pit. If you only use the water you need a LOT of water not 1-2l. If you are going to use water 20-30 litres is the sort of volume you may need for any decent fire. If there is no water then I back fill with a decent cover of soil, not 1 inch. If you are in a popular area try to use an existing fire pit or area. At least it will look like a fire and so there is some hint it may be very hot. There is a two way responsibility. You need to put out the fire so that you don't start a bush fire if the wind really comes up, others coming to a camping area need to be wary of obvious fire pits until they have been inspected. If you have small children you need to be very cautious. The water argument comes from a case where a small child fell onto a covered fire and by the time someone raced over and picked her up she had severe burns and ended up lossing some fingers.

I noted the ash in the loo pit in a previous reply, not a bad idea.

Steev

There have been many documented cases of people (especially children) walking onto a concealed fire which is still hot and burning their feet. Let the fire die right down then put it out with water. Definitely don't bury a burning fire, it will remain hot for hours/days especially in sand.
Mike.

Me and my mates usually have a ceremonial 'putting out' of the fire before we leave, it means expelling a few beers consumed the night before, the more beers the better the fire is put out before having to use water!

Having suffered the consequences of walking over a buried fire pit (badly burnt feet), I usually bury our fire ash/coals as deep as possible and cover over with stones if available. Also pour over the dishwashing water. Try to keep the fires as small as possible so as to conserve wood.

As said above, burying a fire sometimes does far kall. Fires can burn underground for a long time. We had a swamp fire opposite Cronulla High that lasted 3 mths, it kept coming to life time after time, no matter how much water we threw at it. they ran a dozer through it in the end.

The only sure way is water, and be genrous. If you can touch it or hold the wood, then its cool enough... THEN if you like to leave it clean, bury it.

If your in a desert, its different, you can dig a pit and bury it, as long as theres plenty of sand surrounding your fire, and your in the "DESERT", not a bushy camp site thats the same as the center of the high country. Sand doesnt usually catch fire.

A good idea given to me during a camp with some old bushy was to have very small logs, then in the morning throw them in a bucket of water.. My problem is I like a bonfire not a match!

Fraser Island no longer allows fires on the beach for the same reason as post above. The quoute from the ranger when asked was"a small child badly burnt theier feet due to a fire been buried"

definitly dont bury If you do that the fre will smoulder for days (as a id we had a pet fire and would dig it up every couplke of days and get it going again before burying it)
Water to put out a fire Pfft - try around min 50l. I have spet 10 min with a hose on a fire only to come back in 2 hours to see it going.
Try spreading the coals as it ill go out in a matter of hours with no concentrated hot spot
The politiclly corect methods of putting out fires are NOT the best

There is never one rule for all,
Just use common-sense, look around, do the right thing, think about the person who might roll up 5 mins after you leave and have a conscience.
All will be good.
Cheers

Just wondering how many of you actually read Val's original post?

"But what do forum members do in desert areas where water is scarce?"

Where water is scarce I would dig a deep pit to light the fire in and once I have finished with it I would let it die down over night. Don't re-light it in the morning if you are leaving, then use a shovel to turn over the coals to get the heat out of them - do this a number of times whilst you are packing up and then flatten the coals out as much as possible.

If for some reason you do need to re-light it to cook with make it a very small fire just enough for your cooking needs and no more.

Then fill in the pit with the sand and mark it - similar to how you would mark foul ground - which everyone obviously does.

But I think the best advice is to use gas for all your cooking needs and if water is that scarce and you are only having a fire to sit around then I probably wouldn't have a fire at all - less chance of any accidents.

Thanks all for your thoughtful responses.

The dangers of covering hot fires with sand are clear. Some good ideas about recycling water when its scarce as in desert areas. Covering up cooled fires makes sense if there are no established fire pits - helps to maintain an unused appearance.

We usually have only a small fire at night - and cook mostly with gas. But a fire adds so much to the camp experience that its hard to go without - even if it means carrying some wood.

Cheers,
Val.