Teaching Kids Outdoor Fire Safety

Whether your family is enjoying campfires or living with wildfires, outdoor fire season is in full force.

So many of us probably carry either memories or imagery in our minds of the idyllic childhood camping trip, and a lot of it includes campfires. Who doesn’t want to cozy up with their kids around the fire after a big adventure day, make s’mores, tell stories, and play games? For me, it was listening to my dad play the guitar while the fire crackled.

As adults we know that it is our responsibility to learn campfire safety and some basic wildfire awareness, at the very least. And kids seem to be drawn to fire, so we can use this as a way to teach them about fire safety in the outdoors as well.

We’re here to help you break down outdoor fire safety and fun and a bit of the science behind wildfires. We’ll point you toward some awesome additional resources as well if you want to dig deeper into these topics with your kids.

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Safe Campfires

Campfire Basics

When to Have a Campfire

Before you pack up your firewood and s’mores fixings for your next camping trip, make sure you understand fire restrictions where you are camping.

First, check for any fire restrictions in the area you’ll be camping. A good starting point is your state forest service, either by calling or visiting their website. These websites tend to have comprehensive lists of fire restrictions and, if needed, will direct you to a different agency, such as a regional forest service site, a Bureau of Land Management site, or a national or state park site, for more detailed information on fire restrictions where you are going.

You may see a fire danger rating that dictates any restrictions. These levels are low, moderate, high, very high, and extreme. Understanding these levels is a crucial first step in wildfire awareness and responsibility with campfires.

As far as restrictions go, there are a few levels of fire restrictions, and these are vital to understand before you plan on campfire fun for your family. It may be that wood fires or charcoal cooking are not allowed with the current level of fire danger, but the use of camp stoves and propane fire pits is because they have a shut-off valve.

A child sits near a propane fire pit outside.

Along with understanding the fire danger level and any bans or restrictions where you are going, double check the weather and avoid campfires on very windy days.

Now that you, as the parent, have all of this crucial knowledge, here are some ideas for involving your kids in this stage of the process.

Kids Can:

Make a poster of Smokey Bear’s five rules of fire prevention
Learn the colors and dial system for each level of fire danger.
Match fire danger components to the level they go with. If you have an older child, lay out colored construction paper for the color that goes with each level, and cut out the components in the description. After going over it together, challenge them to match the danger components to the level. For a younger child, simplify the language if needed and match or act out.
Learn the details of fire restriction stages by playing a scenario game with you. For example, after talking through the fire restrictions, ask your child ‘If there is a Stage 1 Fire Restriction can we build a fire? Can we still use our camp stove?’

Where to Have a Campifre

Once you know of any burn bans in the area you’ll be camping, check on any specifics for the campground or dispersed camping area you’ll be staying. This includes knowing the rules about wood collection, access to water, and fire rings and if you can build your own if one doesn’t exist.

If building your own fire ring is permitted, do the following for a safe fire ring:

Build your fire ring well away from overhanging branches.
Encircle the fire ring with rocks.
Clear a 10-foot area around the fire ring, down to the dirt and remove anything that could catch on fire.

Kids Can:

Talk to rangers and camp hosts about rules and restrictions if you are camping in a campground.
Point out their ideas of safe areas for building a fire ring if you are dispersed camping.
Gather large rocks to build the fire ring.
Help clear the area around the fire ring.

How to Have (And Put Out) a Campfire

So, you’ve arrived in a camping area with low fire danger and no restrictions on fires within a designated fire ring. It’s time to build your fire!

Here’s how to build a safe and lasting fire.

Have a metal shovel and bucket of water near your fire ring.

Gather three types of wood: tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is twigs, small sticks, dry leaves, and dry grass. Kindling is pieces of wood smaller than one inch around. And fuel is larger pieces of wood to keep your fire going. Make sure these are stacked upwind of the fire.

Make a small pile of tinder in the center of your fire ring. You can then add your kindling in a teepee shape or a log cabin shape around the tinder.

Light the tinder, and if using a match let it cool and discard the match in the fire- never on the ground outside of the fire. Add more tinder as the fire grows, and blow or fan lightly at the base of the fire.

Add kindling and larger wood to keep the fire going. Always keep a watchful eye on the fire and never leave it unattended!

Kids Can:

Fill a bucket with water to keep near the fire.
Gather tinder, kindling, and fuel if wood gathering is permitted.
Build the tinder pile, and the kindling structure. If you’d rather your child not be getting their hands in an ashy fire pit, they can practice building kindling structures out of the fire ring.
Help light the fire, with your discretion on age and ability, and with supervision.
Help chop larger pieces of wood into kindling, with your discretion on age and ability, and with supervision.

As your fire is burning, add only wood to it and avoid putting trash in the fire ring to burn. Also be sure to remind your kids of important safety rules around the fire:

Do not sit on or put feet on the metal or rock fire ring. These get very hot and may burn you or melt your shoes!
Do not pull sticks from the fire or add anything to the fire without asking.
Fireside is a calm body place. No running or active play around the fire. If your kiddos need to move during fire time, you can provide headlights, glow sticks, lanterns, and glow in the dark yard games.
When anyone need to get up, walk around the back of the camp chairs, not in between camp chairs and the fire ring.
Busy toddlers can: sit in your lap, snack while sitting in a toddler camp chair next to you, or be buckled in a stroller next to the campfire.

‘Dead Out’ Campfires

I tend to err very much on the side of caution with putting campfires out, and have been chuckled at by plenty of friends for this. But with so many human-caused wildfires, it is worth it and absolutely vital to make sure fires are dead out.

A dead out campfire is one that is cold enough to touch. If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.

One aspect of getting a fire dead out that may be counterintuitive is that you don’t want to bury your coals. It may seem to make sense to smother them with ash, but they can actually smolder and reignite later. Here are the steps to follow for a dead out campfire.

Let the fire burn down to coals if you can.
Dump water on the fire.
Stir the fire with a metal shovel.
Pour more water on the fire.
Stir again.
Test if your fire is DEAD OUT! Turn off your headlight or lantern and look closely for any visible glowing coals or embers. If you see any, add water and stir again. Finally, gently touch the fire- if it’s cold enough to touch, it’s cold enough to leave.

Kids Can:

Learn what a ‘dead out’ fire is. Too hot to touch is too hot to leave.
Learn the steps for a achieving a dead out fire.
Help bring water and pour it on the fire.
Help stir the fire.
Touch the fire to test it, only after you have done the same.

Be Wildfire Aware

Being wildfire aware includes understanding all of the campfire safety outlined above and understanding basic wildland fire science. Children may also connect with this topic by understanding the affects of wildfires on forests, animals, and humans and by learning more about wildland firefighters.

There are so many wonderful free resources available for teaching children about wildfires. Here are a few broad resources to get you started.

Wildland Fire: Junior Ranger Program through the National Park Service. This is a downloadable booklet that can be done together at home, with a printable Junior Ranger badge to celebrate your child’s learning at the end.
Smokey Bear’s Reading List and Reading Challenge
Smokey’s Scouts game
National Park Service Fire Basics for Kids
Smokey Bear PSA (public service announcement) videos

If your family is interested in learning about wildland fire careers, check out these free resources:

Teaching Fire Basics and Fire Science

While digging into these resources and learning about fires is a great thing to do at home, it can also add connection and meaning to the topic if you do some of this around your campfire. This could be a great time to work on the wildland Fire Junior Ranger Book, or bring out some books from Smokey Bear’s Reading List.

If your family would rather chat around the campfire, here are a few talking points to help your kids understand fire basics.

If you have younger children chat with them about what fire is and examples of where we see fires, like campfires, fireplaces, and stoves. Talk to them about helpful fires- those that we use to cook, warm up, or light candles- and fires that can cause damage-those that get large and out of control. Have them guess what ‘wildfire’ means, and help them understand that these are fires that burn in natural areas like forests and grasslands. Let them know that wildfires can be helpful to keep forests healthy by burning away dead plants or overgrown areas, but that we want them to stay under control and not caused by irresponsible actions.

Go a bit further with younger kids who understand this, and with older kids, by talking with them about basic fire science. This is that fires need three things to burn: fuel, heat, and oxygen. To put a fire out, you have to take away at least one of these things. Along with the definition of wildfires, add in some discussion about human-caused wildfires- those started by cigarettes, campfires, or even semi-truck changes dragging on pavement and causing sparks that blow into grass next to the highway- and naturally caused wildfires, like those started by lightning. You can talk to them about prescribed burns as well- when land management agencies start a supervised fire on purpose, under certain weather conditions to keep a forest or grassland healthy.

Kids Can:

Work through their favorite resources for learning about wildfires.
Lead or be involved in wildfire education at school, the library, and local events.
Share their ideas, understanding, and questions in these discussions.
Donate goods or money to wildland firefighters during wildfire season.
Visit a local fire station to get an up close look at equipment and chat with firefighters.

Smoke Safety

In the process of learning about wildfire basics, it’s important that we all understand how to stay in-the-know about active wildfires, and safe and healthy in smoky conditions.

I have lived in areas for my whole life that have a fire season. While the information may not have been as readily available when I was a child, it is now close to a daily ritual to check our Air Quality Index (AQI) if there are fires nearby. This is our first step in planning our recreation options during fire season.

There are a lot of apps and resources to make this easy. Some of these include the EPA AirNow app, Purple Air, and Air Visual.

If fires in our area are particularly bad and we are trying to plan a bigger outdoor adventure, or we have a trip further from home coming up, we use NOAA to check the smoke forecast and InciWeb or National Interagency Coordination Center Incident Management Situation Report to understand how specific wildfires are behaving. This helps us adjust our plans for days or times of the day that will be safe and healthy to get outside.

As an outdoor-loving family, understanding our air and the movement of smoke ensures that we aren’t trapped inside through a whole fire season even if there are days that we end up inside nearly all day because of extremely poor air quality.

Children playing near a river under a smoky sky.

Kids Can:

Be involved in looking at maps and AQI resources.
Learn when it is safe to go out.
Brainstorm or create active, indoor play games for times when it isn’t safe to go out.

While wildfire season is truly heartbreaking for the forest life and communities affected, and can be disruptive to outdoor recreation, we can use this as an opportunity to deeply and meaningfully engage our children in learning about these natural disasters.

Whether you stick with basic safety rules and knowledge, or dig deeper into learning about wildfires we hope it helps campfires be more relaxed, comfortable, and always contained.