Learning Fire Safety Skills

Purpose

Learn safe methods for building, maintaining, and extinguishing a fire. Understanding fire safety will help you be prepared for camping as well as emergency situations.

Description

Plan an outdoor activity where you build, maintain, and extinguish a fire—for example, a hike, campout, or cookout. Here are some guidelines:

Select a safe location to build a fire. This location should be cleared of all flammable material.
Fill a large bucket with water and keep it nearby in case it’s needed.
Gather your tinder, kindling, and wood (to make your own tinder, see “More Ideas” below). If you didn’t bring these items with you, search the area to find them. For tinder, use small flammable material such as dry leaves, dry bark, dry grass, or dry pine needles. For kindling, use small sticks, twigs, and branches that can easily be snapped in half. For fuel wood, use branches about as wide as your wrist.
Strategically build your fire by making either a teepee or a log cabin.
- To make a teepee fire, place your tinder in the middle, and then form a small teepee over the top of it with your kindling. Finally, build your bigger teepee over the top of that with your fuel wood. Light your tinder in the middle with a match or lighter.
- To make a log cabin fire, start with the little teepee of kindling with the tinder in the middle, and then place larger pieces of fuel wood on opposite sides of the teepee. Next, lay smaller pieces of fuel wood across the first set on the other sides of the teepee. Keep repeating and layering your wood a few more times. Light your tinder in the middle with a match or lighter.
As your fire is burning, you may continue to place more fuel wood as the beginning wood burns out. Just remember to stack it on top or leaning so there’s still air moving through the fire.
As the fire burns, follow these safety tips:
- Do not allow anyone to play with or near the fire.
- Maintain the fire at a controlled level.
- Never leave the fire unattended.
When you’re done, extinguish the fire by pouring water over it, then stirring it to check for hot embers underneath. Repeat this process until there are no more hot spots.

As you plan this activity, please follow the counsel given in chapter 13 of Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010) and review “Safety Recommendations for Church Activities.”

More Ideas

Learn from an expert—Invite a firefighter or other expert to teach you fire safety skills: for example, how to prevent fires, how to use a fire extinguisher, how to extinguish different types of fires, and so forth.
Make your own tinder—Experts recommend using 100 percent cotton balls with petroleum jelly as tinder. To make your tinder, put some cotton balls into a plastic bag along with some petroleum jelly. Then press the jelly into the cotton balls. The cotton balls should be coated with jelly but not completely saturated. Save the balls in a small container or bag to use in making your next fire.
Test your fire-building skills—Can you build a fire with the perfect amount of tinder, kindling, and fuel wood so that you need only a single match to light it?
Learn other ways to start a fire—Would you know how to start a fire in an emergency without a match? Learn about what other ways you could do this, such as by using flint and steel, or with a magnifying glass.
Have a cookout—Cook a meal or treat over a fire while practicing your fire safety skills.

Discussion

Encourage participants to talk about what they are learning. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity. You could ask questions like the following:

Why do you think fire safety is important?
When have you or others benefited from understanding fire safety?
What feelings or impressions do you have about learning fire safety skills?
How can you apply what you are learning in your life?

Related Resources

Sabbath Day Lessons

What does it mean to be self-reliant? (Aaronic Priesthood)

What does it mean to be self-reliant? (Young Women)