Proper Way to Put Out a Camp Fire
A roaring fire is both a success, and a responsibility. It is your job to properly maintain and extinguish your campfire so that future campers can do the same.
Maintaining Your Campfire
As you’re enjoying your campfire, remember these safety tips:
- Once you have a strong fire going, add larger pieces of dry wood to keep it burning steadily
- Keep your fire to a manageable size
- Make sure children and pets are supervised when near the fire
- Never leave your campfire unattended
- Never cut live trees or branches from live trees
Extinguishing Your Campfire
- When you’re ready to put out your fire and call it a night, follow these guidelines:
- Allow the wood to burn completely to ash, if possible
- Pour lots of water on the fire, drown ALL embers, not just the red ones
- Pour until hissing sound stops
- Stir the campfire ashes and embers with a shovel
- Scrape the sticks and logs to remove any embers
- Stir and make sure everything is wet and they are cold to the touch
- If you do not have water, use dirt. Mix enough dirt or sand with the embers. Continue adding and stirring until all material is cool.
Remember: do NOT bury the fire as the fire will continue to smolder and could catch roots on fire that will eventually get to the surface and start a wildfire.
REMEMBER: If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave!
Excerpt from: www.smokeybear.com