Building a Safe Campfire

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Careless construction and use of campfires can lead to the development of a wildfire. Please protect the land from unwanted fire by following these simple steps when building a campfire. Consult the forest fire management staff in your communities or this website to determine the fire danger in your area.

• Don't build campfires that are too large to extinguish or to control. Smaller, lower intensity campfires are best for cooking on and can be safely managed.
• Before lighting a campfire, make sure you dig a fire pit down to mineral soil; no organic or burnable material (wood, moss, twigs) should be in the pit. The best fire pits have sand or gravel bottoms.
• Clear the area around the pit of all woody or organic surface debris. A safe clear area would be at least 10 feet in diameter. If possible, use a ring of rocks as a guard against escaping sparks, coal and other fire hazards.
• Build your campfire away from flammable structures such as tents, trees and buildings.
• Keep a pail of water or a shovel nearby and before leaving, make sure the fire is completely extinguished.
• Start by pouring water onto the fire until no smoke or flames are visible. Stir the pile with a stick or the shovel and continue adding water.
• Repeat these steps until the campfire is out.

Enjoy your campfires this summer but please do your part to prevent wild fires.

To report a wildfire, call: 1-877-NWT-FIRE or 1-877-698-3473.