Fire restrictions. You may encounter fire restrictions in many camping areas, especially in forested areas during the dry season. Look for the "fire danger" signs on your way in. When the fire danger is high, camp fires may be totally prohibited. This is NOT an arbitrary form of harassment! Pay strict attention to fire restrictions. Failure to do so can result in wild fires that are costly in terms of monetary damages, environmental impact, and loss of life! Fines for ignoring fire restrictions can run as high as $5000! And you may be liable for damages as well! Even during some fire restrictions you may be able to have fires in approved fire pits in approved campgrounds -- but NOT open fires in primitive camping areas. Charcoal BBQs are usually considered open fires and subject to the same restrictions. Gas stoves and BBQs may be allowed even when open fires are prohibited, but when the fire danger gets high enough, even they may be banned. Expect fire restrictions in hot, dry weather. Even a passing rain storm might not drop enough precipitation to relieve restrictions so don't assume its OK to build a fire without checking with the local ranger.
Site Preparation: one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of building a camp fire is the selection and preparation of the site. First, choose a location well away from trees, bushes, dry grass, buildings, tents, and vehicles. If you are camping in a dense forest you may have to consider overhead clearance as well as proximity of the fire pit to tress or bushes. Then clear the ground of combustible materials to a radius of at least 5' from your fire. If possible, create a fire pit to contain your fire by digging a hole or using a circle of rocks or an earth berm. If using rocks, avoid porous or wet rocks, which may explode in the heat of a fire as trapped moisture expands. If your camp site includes a fire ring or other fire pit, use the existing one, even in primitive camping areas. If you have to create your own fire pit, clear the ground around the camp fire of any combustible materials for at least 5' around the outside of the fire pit. This is one of the most common failures of novice campers. They build a fire on combustible materials and it gets away from them, burning along runners and roots and popping up in other places unexpectedly. Just scraping away surface materials may not be enough. Fire can and sometimes does make its way through plant roots, smouldering along until it gains access to air and pops out as flames, often far away from the original fire. Using an existing fire pit in primitive campsites instead of making your own saves you time and labor and usually ensures the spot is fairly safe but you should always inspect the pit and the area around it to make sure it was properly created in the first place. Campfires on snow will require special attention. The snow pretty much already gives you the necessary cleared area, but fires on snowpack will quickly melt the snow underneath and around them, sometimes drowning them out and also making the area near the fire wet and slushy. If the snow isn't too deep, dig down to solid ground. On deep snow use a large metal pan like an old car hood or build a base of green or wet logs to keep the fire out of the snow.
Build the right kind of fire. The biggest mistake most campers make is to build too big a fire. You only need a small fire to heat up a single serving meal or make a pot of coffee. Some experts call this a "snack fire". Start with a small teepee structure, about 8-10" across, let it burn down, then put your pot on top of the coals and add fuel around the pot until you're through cooking. The next step up is a cooking fire. Start it the same way, only keep building it until you have enough fire to cook your meal. Put a green log on each side of the fire, with about 4" between them on one end and 7" between them on the other end. Spread the fire in between the logs. Your coffee pot should fit nicely at the narrow end, your frypan or cook pot on the wider end. Cooking is best done over coals, not active flames so only feed the fire as needed to support your cooking. The next step up is a comfort fire. The best way to build a comfort fire is to give it a reflector to reflect heat back toward you. A natural reflector is easiest to use -- a cliff, an embankment, or a big rock or large tree, but you can build one out of logs too. If you have a large number of people and need to surround the fire, a reflector won't be useful, but it is really helpful if you are alone, have just a few people to keep warm, or need to reflect heat into a shelter. Build the fire large enough to generate enough heat to keep everyone warm. A fire pit about 3' in diameter is usually large enough for a family or small group. If you have a large group you may need a larger fire. You normally don't need and shouldn't build a huge bonfire. That just wastes fuel and unnecessarily pollutes the atmosphere. It also makes more work for you to put it out at the end of the night and clean it up before you leave the site. For detailed instructions on fire building and some other helpful campfire tips see Three Essential Campfires.
Camp fires are not difficult nor dangerous if handled properly. Undoubtedly you will see people start campfires using various volatile fluids such as gasoline and charcoal lighter fluid. Although many people do this successfully, it is not a recommended practice and is illegal in many places. You can be seriously injured if you accidentally spill any of the fluid on your hands or clothes and it catches fire. The sudden blast when the fire lights can scatter burning debris that can ignite unwanted fires elsewhere -- like your's or your neighbor's clothing, your tent or under your car, OHV, or RV! If you insist on using flammable liquids, NEVER pour a flammable liquid on an existing fire or smoldering fire pit. Only use it to get a new fire going and then use it carefully and cautiously. If there is already heat or flames present it can instantly vaporize the fuel and create a highly explosive situation. Take care not to spill any of the liquid on your clothes or your body. If you do, wash it off your hands and change contaminated clothes BEFORE lighting the fire. Otherwise fumes will bring the fire to you when you strike a match or lighter and you won't like the results. Since it is the fumes that burn, it isn't necessary for your contaminated clothing to come in contact with fire for it to burst into flames! I read of a jet mechanic who, after being doused with jet fuel (kerosene) went into a flight line shack to change clothes. He got distracted before changing and the fumes from his clothing filled the shack. When they reached the flash point, the pilot light in the shack heater ignited the fumes and the whole place blew up! When lighting a fire using accellerants, stand back. Use a match on the end of a hot-dog cooker or similar wire or light the end of a long stick. You will see some people toss a lighted match into a gasoline soaked pile of wood. It creates an impressive flash but is a very dangerous practice. I've seen more than one such fire starter lose his eye lashes and eye brows and all the hair on his arm this way. It often sends flaming sticks flying in all directions as the fumes literally explode. Starting fires with flammable liquids also creates unpleasant and possibly dangerous fumes. No one wants their marshmallows or hot dogs to taste like gasoline or charcoal starter and the smell of burning petroleum products is far from the pleasant fragrance of pine boughs, cedar, or hickory. I read of a camper who prepared to start his fire with gasoline, but had left his matches in his vehicle. His fire pit was slightly uphill from another campsite. While he was retrieving his matches, the gasoline fumes from his soaked wood (which are heavier than air), drifted downhill along the ground to the other fire. About the time he returned to light his fire, it "auto lighted" as the fumes reached the other fire and flames snaked back up the fume trail and lit his fire! An impressive and exciting, almost magical display, no doubt, but one that illustrates just how dangerous and unpredictable using gasoline to start fires can be. Just think. If those fumes had crossed over or had been from a spill under his vehicle, it would have been disastrous!
The best way to start is fire, is to build it properly instead of cheating with flammable liquids. Start with tinder -- paper, lint, wood shavings, pine needles, dry grass or weeds, strips of dry bark. I cut all the branches off my old Christmas trees and keep them for tinder for lighting fires in my fireplace at home. You can often find dry pine needles on the ground in a forested area. Add kindling -- small pieces of wood or twigs about the diameter of your fingers or smaller. Split kindling ignites more easily than whole twigs so you may want to split your own from larger pieces of firewood. Next a layer of slightly larger pieces of wood -- about 1-2" across. Then some 3-4" across and finally your "logs": larger pieces of fire wood 6-9" in diameter. Good old-fashioned wooden matches are a kind of standard way to start campfires. I prefer the "strike anywhere" variety over the "strike on box" but they are a little more dangerous if you have children around. Butane lighters are also a convenient choice, especially the long ones built for lighting fireplaces instead of the pocket sized units designed primarily for lighting cigarettes. The longer reach lets you get into the center of your fire and keeps your fingers away from the flames. I've started my share of desert campfires using flammable liquids but when I light a fire in my fireplace, I build it from the ground up, with tinder and kindling. I've found it works just as well as gasoline and produces a much better smelling fire -- without the risks or contaminating the flue or burning the house down! If for any reason you think you MUST use flammable liquids to get your fire going (if, for instance, your wood is wet or there is an urgent need to get a fire going quickly), prepare the structure of the fire first, then pour a controlled amount of fluid over the wood, taking care not to spill it on your hands, boots or other parts of your body or leaving a trail outside the fire pit. Then light a long stick or attach a match to one so you can ignite the fire from a safe distance. And make sure everyone around you is at a safe distance before lighting the fire. Exercise extra caution when starting a fire in a contained space such as an incinerator or metal fire barrel. Fumes will accumulate in the container and will explode when you light it, so keep your distance. Tossing a lighted match or stick into a pile of gasoline soaked wood creates a spectacular ignition but sometimes the explosive force is enough to send flaming debris some distance, perhaps setting you, your tent, your vehicle, or your companions on fire.
Using matches or a lighter is the easiest way to start your fire. If you have prepared your fire properly, you can carefully light the tinder in the middle of the fire and you should soon be enjoying the blaze. If you gave in to the urge to dump some gasoline or other accelerant onto your firewood, DO NOT strike your match near the fire pit. Light it some distance away and use a long stick to carry the flame to the fire. Otherwise you'll be losing your eyebrows and possibly setting your hair on fire! That sudden "WHOMP!" when you toss a match into your fire pit and the gasoline lights is exciting, but it can also wreak havoc with the structure of your wood and has the potential to make you and any bystanders part of the conflagration. Not a good way to tell your friends "You Light Up My Life!" The long "log lighter" devices designed for igniting fireplaces and campfires are helpful, but if you're using an accellerant, you'll be too close for safety. With those can place the flame precisely where it needs to go in your tinder when building a proper fire. A small pocket sized Bic lighter is a convenient choice for camping. It takes up little room, about as much as a dozen wooden matches, and will light hundreds of fires. Take care using it to light your campfire. You might use your lighter to light a stick, then use the stick to light your fire, keeping your hands away from the tinder and kindling. If you try to put your hand deep into a prepared fire structure you run the risk of dropping the lighter when it gets too hot to hold and that could lead to a dangerous explosion if the lighter itself catches fire.
Fire starters are a good way to make it easier to get your fire going. You can buy them commercially or make your own from paper egg cartons, sawdust, and wax. They will be helpful but they are no substitute for using proper fire building procedures. I've seen ignorant campers use up a whole box of excellent commercial fire starters without ever getting a fire going. You still need to build a proper fire. Build your fire structure with a fire starter in the center of the tinder, surrounded by kindling, then progressively larger pieces of wood. Then ignite the fire starter. It should burn long enough to ignite the tinder and the kindling.
Starting fires without matches. For the more adventurous or those who wish to practice survival methods, try a flint style fire starter or a fire piston. Flint style fire starters and fire pistons work best with prepared tinder. Char cloth or charred punky wood ignites easily using a flint fire starter. Another good tinder, which is readily available and inexpensive, is cotton balls. Be sure they are real cotton, and not synthetic cosmetic puffs. Real cotton balls ignite easily from sparks from a flint/steel strike. Sparks simple melt through synthetics without igniting them. You may hear dryer lint recommended for use as a fire starter, but since so many of today's clothes are made of synthetic fabrics, you'd be better off with cotton balls. However, dryer lint from pure cotton is good. That nice blue lint from washing your denim jeans or clean white stuff from T-shirts or towels should work just fine, but the bright red stuff from a nylon sweater will have you getting hot under the collar trying to use it instead of getting a nice campfire going. To use a flint and steel fire starter, hold the flint close to the tinder and strike it forcefully with a knife or other piece of steel -- kind of like you are trying to quickly whittle pieces off the flint. If you do it right it will shower the tinder with sparks. To use a fire piston you place a tiny piece of tinder inside the cylinder, insert the piston, and strike the end of the piston forcefully. The compression works like a diesel engine to generate heat inside the cylinder to ignite the tinder. At best you'll get a tiny ember you will need to nurture to get your fire going. Many wilderness survival sources will tout starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together. While this is theoretically possible, it is unlikely you will succeed, even with practice, and it takes a LOT of work. I would only use it as a last resort in a survival situation. Better to carry a Bic lighter and/or flint and steel in your survival kit. If you get caught somewhere without it, knowing how to use a bow-drill or fire plow could save your life, or, at least add to your comfort. As I often say, the only way I want to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together is if one of them is a match!
Campfire styles: there are two basic styles of stacking wood for a camp fire: 1) the tipi and 2) the log cabin. Intipi style fire, pieces of wood are leaned together to form a cone (small end up). In the log cabin style fire, pieces of wood are stacked in a square. I have found no particular advantage to either approach, except that a log cabin is usually more stable than the tipi. When starting the fire you may build all the recommended layers at once, then light the tinder at the bottom or start with just the tinder and carefully adding kindling and larger pieces of wood until you achieve the desired size of fire.
How big a fire do you need? If you have a large group of people you may want a large fire -- even a bonfire. Bonfires are impressive and throw off a lot of heat and light, but much of that heat is wasted. Bonfires are more for dramatic effect than for comfort. In most cases a fire with a diameter of about 3' is sufficient for a family or a small group. If you have a large group of people, you may need a larger fire pit and a larger fire so there is room for everyone around the fire. If you are creating a cooking fire, you only want enough fire to do the job. There is a tendency among recreational campers to build a "white man's fire". "White man build big fire, stand way back; Indian build small fire, get up close." Obviously the Indian fire is a more efficient use of fuel and is actually more effective in cooking food and warming its builder. You may need to build a bigger fire when it is raining or snowing so the rain or snow doesn't put it out as well as for increased heat. Building a large fire to "get you through the night" is a mixed bag. It may waste a lot of fire wood, but it may let you sleep through the night. A large, unattended fire while you're sleeping could pose a hazard. Just a slight change in wind direction could blow embers into your shelter or onto your sleeping bag. The bigger the fire, the more embers it can produce. Getting up periodically throughout the night to stoke the fire is a nuisance, but it is safer and more dependable than relying on a big fire to last the night and you might actually get more sleep! I have seen clever ways of stacking wood so it rolls down into the fire as it burns but you really need to know what you are doing to build such a setup safely.
Dakota fire pit. A unique variation of an "Indian fire" is one commonly known as a Dakota fire pit. They make very good cooking fires and are less noticeable if you're in a situation where a certain amount of discretion is required. Dig a hole about a foot or so deep and foot across. Then dig an "air hole" -- a tunnel on one side (the windward side) extending from the surface few inches from the edge of the pit down to the bottom of the pit. This little tunnel will allow air to be drawn down to the base of the fire. Fires of this type are very efficient and produce more concentrated heat for cooking from less wood. Because they burn hot, they have less smoke than open fires. You wouldn't build a Dakota fire pit as a signal fire, but it makes an excellent cooking fire.
Choosing firewood: there are few places left where you are able to gather wood around camp grounds so plan to bring your own to most camp sites. This also lets you prepare your tinder and kindling in advance, which can be of great advantage if you need to get a fire going in inclement weather. Avoid wood with metal hardware still attached or treated or painted wood and composites such as particle board and plywood. Treated or painted wood and composites may give off toxic fumes when they burn. When choosing firewood, it is useful to know the difference between hardwoods and softwoods. Hardwoods burn longer and give off more heat. Softwoods are usually lighter to carry, easier to split and easier to light, but burn faster and give less heat for the same amount of wood. Some typical hardwoods are Oak, walnut, and hickory. Typical softwoods are pine, cottonwood, elm and poplar. Softwoods make excellent kindling. They are easy to split, and easy to light. Just avoid trying to split pieces with big knots in them. BTW, splitting larger pieces of wood is much easier and safer using a wedge than trying to split it with an axe. Wedges are inexpensive and durable and are good addition for anyone who plans to build many camp fires. Lacking wedges, you might be able to use wooden glut instead. A glut is essentially a wooden wedge. Try to use a harder wood for your glut than the wood you want to split.
Safety tips for splitting firewood: don't hold the wood you are splitting with your fingers while swinging the axe or hatchet! This is a very good way to quickly shorten or remove your fingers and give your companions an unwanted opportunity to practice their first aid skills. Instead, use a small stick to stabilize the piece of wood. If you miss your mark and take off the end of the stick, get another stick -- no big loss! Unlike your fingers, the stick is easily replaced and does not create a blood-born pathogen hazard for by standers -- and, as far as we know, the stick will feel no pain. Also take care to keep on-lookers away from where you are swinging your axe or hatchet. A standard method of ensuring a safe distance is to grasp the axe by the head and swing the handle 360 degrees to make sure no one -- or no thing -- is in the way. Also be sure to look overhead to make sure you won't hit branches or (God forbid!) wires that might deflect your swing and cause an accident. Though it might seem tempting to stay under your RV awning or canopy to cut firewood if it is raining, DON'T DO IT! The potential to damage an expensive awning from flying wood or a misdirected swing isn't worth it and the risk of a deflected blow splitting your chin or your shin instead of the wood is too great. You want to have plenty of clear space around you when swinging an axe! When chopping firewood, stand with your legs apart so a missed swing passes between them instead of embedding the axe into your shins.
Here is a tip for splitting large logs. Ordinarily the pieces fall off the chopping block and you have to keep picking them up an putting them back on to split them into smaller pieces. Here is a video that shows you how to make and use a simple rig to keep the pieces together until you are finished splitting them. He calls it the Split-o-nator. It saves time and a lot of bending and reaching.
Portable Fire Pits: there are a number of attractive portable camp fire pits on the market, but what I've found works best is the tub from an old washing machine -- and they're often free! You may be able to obtain one from an appliance repair shop or recycling center. We've used them for years in desert, beach, forest, and back yard settings. They are inexpensive and the porcelain coating is easy to clean and prevents rust. The squat, round shape and twinkling of the fire through the perforations in the tub caused the first one we saw to be dubbed "R2D2" by its owner. Some tubs have tubes that rise up through the center, where the agitator formerly resided. While these tubes sometimes get in the way of adding wood to the fire or limit the size of fuel, they also lend themselves to a couple of useful adaptions: legs and a cooking grill. I used the same tripod that holds an RV table when you want to use it outside and cut a spare RV table leg to put the R2D2 at the desired height. I made ours so it was about right to slip your toes under on particularly cold evenings but you may want to make yours higher and add a grill to the top and use it for cooking. I found a wire cooking grate from an old charcoal grill that fit mine perfectly. I bolted a pipe floor flange to the grill and screwed in a piece of 2" pipe that drops into the top of the center tube of the tub to provide a very stable grilling surface. A metal garbage can lid is an effective way of containing any stubborn embers if you find yourself ready to retire before your fire is out. R2D2 is generally safe to use in windy conditions and is sometimes acceptable in forest service campgrounds when open flames are prohibited. Be sure to check with rangers first. We've even had forest rangers borrow our R2D2 for their own campfires. There are collapsible fire pits and campfire grills made of wire panels similar to those in your oven. These are light weight, easy to transport, and assemble, but are sometimes a little unstable because they are so light weight. Be sure to follow set-up and use instructions carefully to ensure as much stability as possible. These foldable fire pits are usually not approved for use during fire restrictions. Portable metal fire rings are another option, but unless they are heavy and bulky, they may be easily damaged and they take up quite a bit of room in transit. Portable gas-powered campfires are becoming more popular because of their convenience and sometimes an immunity to fire restrictions.
Campfire tools. The most basic tool is an axe or hatchet. Keep them sharp. A sharp axe will work a lot better and is actually safer than a dull one. A dull axe is more likely to bounce and cause an injury. Before using an axe or hammer, grip the tool by the head and swing it 360 degrees to make sure there are no obstacles or people within range of your swing. Keep a close eye to make sure no one wanders into your active work area. Another inexpensive and handy tool is a splitting wedge. You can use the back or your axe or a large hammer to drive the wedge into the end of a piece of wood to split it into smaller pieces. A saw can be very helpful for cutting wood to fireplace lengths. A sharp chain saw makes very quick work of this task but even a one- or two-person tree saw will be easier than chopping with an axe. For your fireplace at home your tool set probably includes a poker and perhaps a set of tongs. These tools are usually not practical to carry along for camping trips. A sturdy green stick can serve as a temporary poker. Or use your shovel to stir things up and shift wood and coals as needed. Once you get your fire going you may need special utensils for cooking on the campfire. Those with long, heat resistant handles are best. Stainless steel utensils are sturdy but be sure to use pot holders or gloves to prevent burning your hands as the steel is a pretty good conductor of heat.
A few additional notes: be careful what you throw into your campfires. You will see people burning their garbage in their campfires. Sometimes that's OK, but too often garbage contains undesirable elements, such as glass bottles, pressurized containers, tin cans, and batteries. These remain in the ashes and can present future hazards. Pressurized cans, and not just flammables like paint, but even things like whipped cream, cooking spray, and shaving cream are dangerous to put into a fire. As the can heats up the remaining propellant and product expand and can explode, sending shrapnel into anyone or anything nearby. Sometimes even sealed plastic water or soda bottles can explode with surprising force when the trapped air is overheated. Some elements tossed into trash cans without a second thought may produce toxic fumes or may simply generate unpleasant odors. It is a good idea to keep separate trash bags or trash cans for combustibles and non-combustibles. This will allow you to incinerate much of your trash and reduce what you have to retain in your RV or car until you get home. Most paper plates can be safely burned. Styrofoam and plastic coated items, on the other hand, may give off toxic fumes and you might want to avoid burning them, especially in large volumes. Burning a few at time where there is good ventilation shouldn't be a problem. The main components of styrene (what we call Styrofoam) are hydrogen and carbon, so they mostly give off water vapor can carbon dioxide when they burn but they sometimes contain other elements which could be toxic, especially if they have been dyed or decorated.. Incinerating food scraps in a campfire can avoid foul smells in your RV as rubbish rots in trash cans. If you are sharing a campfire with other campers, always get their permission before burning trash. Depending on what is in the trash, it could produce very offensive odors. Always stand upwind when adding trash to a fire.
Never leave a campfire unattended. It only takes a few seconds for an errant breeze to scatter embers that can result in a wildfire. Proper preparation and care of your fire pit will minimize the potential for problems, but you must still keep an eye on things to avoid serious consequences. If an errant gust sends sparks flying, track them down and stomp them out before they can start more fires. If the wind is persistent, put your fire out.
When you are done, make sure your campfire is out -- dead out! Douse it with water or cover it with sand or dirt. I've often seen coals embedded in ash still hot enough to restart a fire 10 or 12 hours after it had burned down. I've even seen buried campfires come to life in the middle of the night, so be careful. By the way, do NOT urinate on a campfire to put it out. Boy scouts seem to find it amusing but the results are not pleasant. It may help douse the fire but unless you have a bladder the size of a draft horse, it isn't going to have much affect, however it will create a really obnoxious smell that will definitely not improve your popularity with fellow campers! On the other hand, using a bucket of gray water from your RV holding tank is a good way to put out the fire and make more room in your holding tank. Unless the gray water is unusually contaminated it will be mostly soapy water and will most likely not produce obnoxious odors. DO NOT even think of trying it with waste from black water tanks! Always put your folding chairs away or at least collapse them and lay them down. I've seen a lot of chairs destroyed when a breeze blew them into an unattended desert campfire after everyone had gone to bed. Of course the last person should have put the fire out. Just because there is low risk of the fire spreading in the desert is no excuse. But, if you're not the last to leave and you don't take your chairs with you, at least lay them down. There is much less chance of them being blown into the fire that way.
Windy conditions. Campfires and wind are not particularly good companions. While a warm fire is nice on a cold, windy night, there is always a potential for the wind to spread sparks or embers and ignite unwanted and uncontrolled fires, often some distance from the fire. And there is always the problem of smoke blowing in your face. Sometimes it seems that no matter where you stand, the smoke still finds your. Besides that, unless you are constantly rotating your body, one side will cook and the other will freeze! You may be able to mitigate wind if you can find a spot on the leeward side of a large rock or other windbreak. But, unless the wind is consistently from one direction, your windbreak could quickly become a liability that traps the smoke from your fire instead of the asset you intended it to be to keep the wind off. Using a portable fireplace with a wind screen, or an "R2D2" will help reduce the risk of uncontrolled sparks and embers. I have seen devices that attach to camp chairs that reflect heat from the campfire under the chair and up the back. The heavy vinyl construction of the reflectors also acts as a good windbreak. Still, the best bet for windy nights may be to snuggle up inside your RV or tent and pursue pleasurable indoor activities and save the campfire for another night when conditions are more favorable. I can think of lots of better things to do than fight smoke blowing in my eyes and face and the wind blowing up my coat and down the back of my neck! Constantly changing winds make it impossible to keep the smoke out of your eyes, significantly reducing the enjoyment of a campfire. When the wind picks up, bank the fires or put them out and head inside for some more intimate indoor recreation. Wind will also make your campfires burn up fuel more quickly, so expect to add logs more frequently on windy nights.
Campfires in the rain will be more difficult to light and keep going in rain but it can be done, with or without flammable liquids. You will probably need a bigger fire in the rain than you would normally use, both for comfort and to overcome the effects of the rain on the fuel. A strong fire will stand up to all but the most powerful downpours. You will need to keep it roaring. If it begins to die down, the rain may soon overcome it and you'll be left with a soggy mess of ashes and half-burned sticks. Plan ahead if there is a chance of rain. Keep some tinder and kindling dry so you can get your fire going in the first place. Once it is going strong it will quickly dry damp wood. Wood that has been rained or snowed on will probably dry out and burn. Wood that has been soaking and is water logged might let your fire go out before it dries out enough to burn. Brush snow off of any wood you add to your fire to minimize the prospect of dousing it.
Standing around a campfire in the rain will probably not be a very pleasant experience. Sure, the fire may feel nice on your face, but you will likely get soaked anyway unless you are under a poncho, canopy, or umbrella. You will lose heat 25 faster in wet clothes and being cold and wet is NEVER a good thing and can even be life threatening. You can get seriously hypthermic even on a fairly warm summer day in wet clothes.
For additional information about fire safety, please see Fire Safety Articles by Mac The Fire Guy.
Get fired up about campfire safety.
