Campfire Safety — Building a Survival Fire the Right Way

A survival fire is not a bonfire. It is the smallest flame that solves the job — warmth, light, boiling water, signal — without spreading into the woods you are trying to steward.

On private land at Wesley Woods, fire is a tool with rules. Read this before you strike a match near maple duff and leaf litter.

Pick the site

• Mineral soil or stone — not peat, not root mat, not leaf pack
• Clear a circle — scrape down to dirt for 3 feet beyond the flame on all sides
• Look up — no low branches, no dead hangers
• Look around — stay 15 feet from logs, brush piles, and structures when you can
• Check wind — sit upwind; keep sparks from blowing into the treeline

If you cannot clear a safe ring, do not burn. Use a camp stove instead.

Build small — survival methods

Teepee — kindling leaning to a point; good for quick light, add pencil-thick sticks, then thumb-thick. Keep it knee-high or less for a survival fire.

Log cabin — parallel sticks square; stable and controlled for cooking.

Platform / base — dry sticks on wet ground so your tinder is not sitting in moisture.

Use only seasoned wood when you can — see how to season firewood. Green wood smokes, pops embers, and fights you.

Never use: gasoline, lighter fluid floods, tire rubber, or pressure-treated scrap.

Safety gear within arm's reach

Before you light:

• Water — bucket or charged hose to the edge of the ring
• Shovel — dirt to smother if wind kicks up
• Gloves — for adding wood without burns
• Headlamp — so you can see embers after dark

While it burns

• Keep the fire small enough to step over in one stride
• Never leave it unattended
• No burning during high wind or dry burn bans
• Watch children and pets at double your normal distance
• Do not throw leaf piles or vine debris on for fun — they flare and float sparks

Put it out — really out

The test: cold to touch.

1. Let wood burn to white ash where you can
2. Pour water — sizzle until it stops
3. Stir ash and dirt with the shovel
4. Pour again
5. Hold the back of your hand above the bed — if heat remains, repeat

A fire you walk away from warm is a fire you do not own.

When not to burn at all

Skip open fire when:

• Ohio or local burn ban is active
• Leaf litter is dust-dry and wind is up
• You are under overhead lines or tree preservation zones under review
• You have not cleared the ring and staged water

Fire belongs in the toolkit — not on the news. Build it small, watch it close, kill it cold. That is survival fire done right.