Fire Safety around Children

hayley_bp

13 March 2023

There's nothing quite like lighting a fire, sitting around its glow at night while stargazing. It’s something I remember doing with my parents when I was a child, and I was naturally keen to pass on the same experiences of togetherness to my own children.

Like any new parent, I had concerns about bringing fire and my precious children into the same space, but fire was a non-negotiable presence that I wanted to be in our life, so I set about learning how to bring these two seemingly incompatible worlds together safely. Fire and children, can they really mix?

It goes without saying, but children must be supervised at all times around fire

Start early. As soon as my daughter could walk, she was passing me logs to put into our fire and ‘helping’ to build it. She felt part of the process. Once the fire was lit, I would hold out my hand slowly towards the fire and as soon as I feel the heat I would shout “hot!” and pull my hand back. Under my guidance, I encouraged her to follow this same slow process of holding out her hands to feel the heat and pulling back swiftly when she felt it was hot. This gives children an understanding of what fire is, and how to self regulate how close they get to it.
Before setting off, run through a list of things needed. Logs, lighter, kindling, bucket, shovel, metal fire bucket etc. Again it makes them feel part of the process. We often take logs with us but depending on where we are, I may ask the children to gather kindling. The rules of kindling are that it’s wood only (possibly a bit of dried seaweed) but never green plants, weeds, plastic or food. Their next job is to fill the bucket with water which will sit in a safe, reachable spot by the fire.
Safe seating. Getting children to collect rocks to build a safe fire perimeter is a great job for little hands. They’ll enjoy darting off to find stones and this gives them a sense of responsibility. Some good, general guidance is that children will likely kneel on the sand around the fire. There is the danger that a chair will become unstable on the sand and topple towards the fire so it’s wise to avoid this. Set up blankets and your seating area a safe distance from the fire, and when moving around, always encourage children to go around the outside, farthest away from the fire, rather than via the inner circle.
Choosing a site. Talk aloud about why you’re choosing the spot you plan on using and give them reasoning they’ll understand e.g. “the tide is coming in so let’s move further up the beach” or “the wind is blowing in that direction and we don’t want smoke to blow in that family’s face” or “under the tree does look like a pretty spot, but what do you think would happen if the flames caught those low hanging branches?”

Learn about the different structures of fire that can be used for different purposes. The main ones to use are teepee and log cabin style: discuss what you plan to do with the fire today and which style they think would be better for that purpose, then help them to build it.
Light the kindling. There are various means of doing this: matches, lighter, steel flint and even a magnifying glass. Pick an age appropriate means and teach them the safety behind the practice of using the equipment. Recognise that this may not be something they do for a while, they may be actively involved with all the other stages before you encourage them to try lighting the fire themselves. Be guided by your child, after all, you know them best.
Whilst the fire is lit, an adult must always stay with the fire.
Once you have finished, it’s really important the fire is extinguished correctly. Pour water on it, stir it with the shovel and feel it (adults only). The golden rule is, if you feel any heat, repeat. Once all the embers are cold, put them in a fire bucket and take them home. We also check the site for litter while packing up and before leaving, re-scatter the stones and move sand over the spot where the fire was.
There you have it, fire safety and children can go hand-in-hand if done carefully, and correctly.