troop 86 fire building night

Fire-Building Night at our Troop Meeting

There are numerous reasons why it’s important for our Scouts to understand basic fire-building techniques. Tonight they learned first-hand.

When people think of Scouts, they often first think of camping. The next thought… A campfire! In order to have a campfire, you need fire-building skills.

Campfires are a common (and sometimes an essential) part of camping. It’s important for our Scouts to know how to build a campfire. However, even more important are the other aspects of building a campfire, such as preparation, usage, and safety.

Other than situations when it’s not permitted at our campsite, we almost always have a campfire whenever we go camping. It’s one of the many responsibilities the Scouts have on our events. (See youth-Led troop.) While these events can be a good learning opportunity, sometimes it’s helpful to step back and review the basics during a more controlled setting, such as a troop meeting. Plus, we have a few new Scouts in our troop, so it’s really beneficial for them!

troop 86 fire building night

We started with a review of the fire-building basics

As with nearly all of our meeting agendas, we started off with a discussion. Even though the Scouts were eager to get started, it was good to do a review of the basics. We covered topics such as:

  • Reasons for building a campfire
  • Why it’s important to have basic fire-building skills
  • Knowing when it is NOT a good idea to build a campfire
  • How to make a safe campfire site
  • How to prepare before leaving for an event
  • Gathering tinder, kindling, and fuel wood
  • Laying the fire
  • Managing the fire
  • Extinguishing the fire

As usual, our experienced Scouts did a great job of sharing the knowledge they’ve learned over the years with the rest of the group.

troop 86 fire building night

Hands-on experience

Demonstrating and practicing are the next key steps in training. Each of the Scouts was given the essential tools needed to start and extinguish a small fire.

As expected, some of our experience campers were quick to get their first started. This gave them an opportunity to jump in and help the others. They really do a great job of teaching one another.

troop 86 fire building night

Information they can use

A big part of our focus tonight was ensuring that all of the Scouts knew the basics of fire-building. However, there was one other key takeaway…

As mentioned above, each Scout was given the basic items needed to build a small fire. This, of course, helped ensure that each Scout would be successful. However, it also demonstrated how easy it is to put together a simple fire-building kit. It’s yet another way for them to BE PREPARED for our next event!