Let There Be Fire!

A lot of things come to mind when people mention the phrase “Boy Scouts”. Camping is likely one of the most common ones. As our Scouts will tell you, no campout is complete without a campfire! It’s only fitting, then, that we do what we can to make sure our Scouts can build a fire in a safe and efficient manner.

The Firem’n Chit

We used our recent troop meeting to discuss the topic of fire building. After our normal opening flag ceremony, we started by going over the BSA requirements for the “Firem’n Chit” award/contract. For those not familiar… The Firem’n Chit is a BSA award/contract, issued via a card, stating that the Scout may be able to use, tend, and start a fire.

Scouts are required to have their card to perform these tasks. If the rules of the Firem’n Chit are not followed, the Scoutmaster (or another leader) can “take a corner”, which means that a corner of the actual card is cut off. Once all 4 corners are gone, the card is no longer valid, and the Scout must once again prove that the requirements of the Firem’n Chit are understood before a new card is issued.

After our Firem’n Chit review, one of our Scouts provided information to the troop regarding various fire-building techniques. Like many Boy Scout Troops, we follow the “Scout-led” concept as much as possible, meaning that the Scouts (not the leaders) run the meetings and lead the other Scouts. 

Hands-on practice

All of that is great, but who are we kidding… The real fun is actually BUILDING a fire! So of course, a good portion of the meeting was devoted to the Scouts practicing their fire-building skills with their flint and steel. With great leadership from our older Scouts, everyone at the meeting as able to successfully build a small fire! 

Events such as this provide many benefits. The Scouts obviously learned (or refined) their skills at fire-building. However, more importantly, they learned leadership skills. It’s one thing to simply tell someone to do something, but it’s a completely different thing to actually help and instruct someone as they learn a skill, and that’s exactly what our older Scouts did. After building their own fires, they spent the rest of the time helping the other Scouts to ensure that everyone was successful. As an adult leader, I couldn’t be more proud.

Of course, after building our fires, we also practiced our fire EXTINGUISHING skills to make sure everything was out before we concluded our meeting. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Learning is fun!

Our Scouts had a lot of fun at this meeting. While that’s great, the best part is that they all LEARNED something while having fun. Whether they learned more about fire-building or leadership skills, is was a positive experience for everyone.

If you would like to learn more information about our troop, be sure to contact us with your questions.