Of course fire is dangerous. It's an elemental force. 'Don't play with matches', we tell children. 'Don't light fires' say the landowners to the public.
And yet the use of fire is the clearest, and perhaps earliest element of human culture that distinguishes our learned behaviour from that of other animals. It is ubiquitous, from the internal combustion engines that power our cars to the proposed 'biochar' technology of the future.
Our control of fire may even have fast-tracked the evolution of the rest of our culture: an evening fire providing warmth and focus for conversation, music and ritual after the day's work. And we remain fascinated by the flicker and glow of real flames.
The paradox is that beyond our own property, it is now hard to find places where open fires are allowed. This fuels a vicious circle: without opportunities to make fire in the public landscape, we lose our ability to do so, and it becomes yet more risky to allow fires to take place.
I would argue for the need to reclaim this quintessentially human activity. By playing with fire, we learn how to control it, and it connects us with the elements of our world - fuel, air, heat, light and cabon.
Children will always want to start fires: why not teach them how to do it safely? On the family bushcraft course I co-created with Andy Noble www.naturescraft.co.uk , children as young as 5 learn about selecting fuel and kindling, fire-starting by spark and friction, and campfire husbandry.
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I'm very much a beginner in bushcraft, but I regularly make and enjoy fires when wild camping below the tree-line. A well-managed fire poses no real danger, and enables us to stay outdoors longer, enjoy the night and connect more deeply with wild places. People will only value what they know and love. It's time that our national park authorities and other stewards of the natural landscape took a longer view of this issue, with a policy to tolerate responsible use of camp-fires coupled with a drive for better public fire-literacy.
This is my personal practice:
1. Use a firesteel - it's an alloy rod that produces hot sparks when struck with a steel striker or knife. Easy to use, never runs out unexpectedly and works in the rain.
2. Carry dry tinder - bushcrafters may sneer but cottonwool is cheap, light and effective.
3. Take a folding saw, and use it to trim timber to size. No point burning more than you need.
4. Find an existing fire ring or pit close to running water, which you need anyway if you're camping. Have a container for dousing close to hand. If you can't find an existing fire ring to camp by, you can cut an area of turf that you can replace the next morning.
5. Locate the landowner and secure permission for your fire (could be tricky!)
6. Gather yourself some bundles of progressively thicker twigs. You're looking for twigs about 12 inches long, initially the thickness of a match, ending up with logs as thick as your arm - a small fire won't need anything bigger. Gather dead wood from live trees (no leaves or buds on what you remove) or from the ground, but only if standing on end or resting on other timber: sticks lying down absorb misture from the ground. This will take about 45 minutes.
7. Ignite your tinder on a small twig platform and lay the bundle of thinnest twigs on top, followed rapidly by two bundles of slightly thicker twigs, etc etc until established.
8. Get dinner on the go.
9. Crack a beer and watch the stars come out.
10. In the morning, scatter any unburnt wood and replace any cut turf so as to leave no trace of your fire. If you cut more wood than you used, hide it out of sight for next time ...
Andy Noble's next family bushcraft course is on 19 and 20 September 2009. For info on this and other course, visit http://www.naturescraft.co.uk/ Mention Outdoor Culture and you get a discount ...
