Ever been subjected to constant rain while fire had to be maintained?

[Lush]

Hi all,
Anyone who has experienced the above? If so; how did you deal with it? Just curious. It is not so much about how to start a fire... I am interested in how you kept your fire going and your wood pile dry enough. For example: "Did you build a roof to shield the fire from the rain?", or "Did you build a shelter suitable for a fire (what kind of shelter?)" ect....
very curious,
Lush

 

[John Fenna]

My fires are usually under tarps or parachutes.
I have a built wood/bark fire roof to dry wood and protect a fire from rain before now.

 

[GGTBod]

Same as John said i put up a tarp to have the fire under then all the wet wood i gather i split and process down and then surround the fire with the wet wood to start the drying process, as it dries a bit it goes on the fire and wet wood replaces it around the fire to start drying, i also get as much of the wood out of the rain as i can that i think i'll need for my visit. Vital Scottish camping skills

 

[dwardo]

Depends how heavy the rain is. Most of the time enough fuel will keep it alive in all but the worst of downpours.
Then there is the option of a very high tarp to keep the fire dry but most of the time the tree canopy does this for you.

Planning the fire location well and a decent weather forecast helps no end.

 

[21st century pict]

I've had a few fires in caves before in bad weather, but I wouldn't recommend it, after a short while the whole caves just fill with so much smoke you can hardly see the way out, even sitting or lying down the smoke can get unbearable, even in caves with massive entrances, In an ideal world better fuel might help, but that's never been an option you just use what you can find, now and again the wind will work in your favour and help a bit but mostly its not comfortable , the entrance is the best spot for a fire in a cave. A rock shelter would be a better choice.

 

[cranmere]

You definitely need some kind of shelter to reduce the water falling on the fire, it's well worth the effort. Probably more important is to produce dry or at least dry-ish fuel and keep it dry.

 

[Lush]

The tarp is an easy and handy solution for that. My tarp though is ultra lightweight, ultra thin... Unfortunately not spark resistent at all...

Will be in sweden in a few months. Hope to have good weather. I will probably build a tipi of some sort to keep me and my fire dry.. Will have to experiment a lot or get lucky to get the smoke cealing as high as possible... Nice project though.

Caves can also be dangerous as they heat up I understood? Risk of rock expanding and splitting..

 

[cranmere]

A small spare tarp perhaps? You don't need a full size one.

 

[rik_uk3]

I use a tarp or go in the tent and light a stove...sod the fire.

 

[didicoy]

No tarp or cover for the fire itself or the wood pile. I kept a fire going for 4 days in constant Welsh rain. This rain was never light rain either. All I had was a fishing brolly to keep the worst of it off me. Firstly be selective with your wood. Collect ash bows dead, but still hung up in the tree or adjacent hedgerow. Build a large fire. It's essential to get a good, hot bed of glowing embers. Frequently covering the fire with new wood collected and angling the latest wood to make a run off to the outer part of your fire. This allows some rain to run free of the fires heart. Patience and attention to detail is needed. Allowing any part of the fire to die down and become soaked, will have to be brought back up to temperature a.s,a.p. By adding small sticks into the gaps. Any spare logs were laid around the fire to form a square. This helped to keep the temperature high at the outer edges and when another log took its place, the previous log was just pushed inward to burn. 4 days and I had to light the fire only three times having taken some sleep.

 

[21st century pict]

The tarp is an easy and handy solution for that. My tarp though is ultra lightweight, ultra thin... Unfortunately not spark resistent at all...

Will be in sweden in a few months. Hope to have good weather. I will probably build a tipi of some sort to keep me and my fire dry.. Will have to experiment a lot or get lucky to get the smoke cealing as high as possible... Nice project though.

Caves can also be dangerous as they heat up I understood? Risk of rock expanding and splitting..

Your not wrong about caves being dangerous, I had to sleep in the Clashach cove cave near Hopeman one night in a hellish storm, massive waves were pounding against cliff wall probably less than 30m away and ever time a wave hit the cliff face the whole cave would boom, at the peak of the storm it sounded like a troll was doing a Keith Moon on the kettle drums , for a while I was just lying there looking up at the sand stone roof thinking that's gona go, didn't sleep much that night I can tell you, just kept thinking to myself Hoka hey.

 

[santaman2000]

Depends how heavy the rain is. Most of the time enough fuel will keep it alive in all but the worst of downpours.........

....... It's essential to get a good, hot bed of glowing embers. ......

Plus 1 to theses. But if it's coming down in buckets I'd go with Rik's idea.

 

[Ruud]

In the army we took an old poncho and put it over the fire like a lean-to to allow the smoke to escape easily. We kept the fire very small but pretty hot (good coalbed) and added fuel when necessary (cooking, drying wet wood).

 

[ged]

Whatever you have to hand can usually shelter a fire. A large, flat rock on some stones or logs will do it.

Make sure the fire won't turn out to be in a river bed if the rain keeps on coming.

 

[MegaWoodsWalker]

Yup and if the fire is big enough it isn't really a problem.

 

[Joonsy]

I've had a few fires in caves before in bad weather, but I wouldn't recommend it, after a short while the whole caves just fill with so much smoke you can hardly see the way out, even sitting or lying down the smoke can get unbearable, even in caves with massive entrances, In an ideal world better fuel might help, but that's never been an option you just use what you can find, now and again the wind will work in your favour and help a bit but mostly its not comfortable , the entrance is the best spot for a fire in a cave. A rock shelter would be a better choice.

Your not wrong about caves being dangerous, I had to sleep in the Clashach cove cave near Hopeman one night in a hellish storm, massive waves were pounding against cliff wall probably less than 30m away and ever time a wave hit the cliff face the whole cave would boom, at the peak of the storm it sounded like a troll was doing a Keith Moon on the kettle drums , for a while I was just lying there looking up at the sand stone roof thinking that's gona go, didn't sleep much that night I can tell you, just kept thinking to myself Hoka hey.

a 16 year old lad died in Bridgnorth Shropshire and a girl was injured when they were camping in a sandstone cave and lit a camp fire and the roof collapsed on them. It was said the heat from the fire was a factor in the roof collapsing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/7985254.stm

 

[forestwalker]

A solid fire will survive quite a bit of rain. A couple of 10-15 cm logs (start in one end and burn until the run out) and if possible a fatwood stump on top will do on a bad day. Have some smaller, dry stuff ready to support it.

A cheap tarp just over the fire is nice, but not necessary.

Skickat från min D5803 via Tapatalk

 

[David LaFerney]

3.3 oz Nomex fabric - the material that firemen's suits are made of - can be bought for around $10 a yard. Just saying.

 

[The Lord Poncho]

In the army we took an old poncho and put it over the fire like a lean-to to allow the smoke to escape easily. We kept the fire very small but pretty hot (good coalbed) and added fuel when necessary (cooking, drying wet wood).

I did that with the army too - an old 58 patt poncho proved to be incredibly resistant to sparks - i was very surprised! I steadily dissembled the fire reflector and burnt the dryish wood from that, and re-stocked it during the day.

 

[Stevie777]

I use a tarp or go in the tent and light a stove...sod the fire.

Isn't that not a bit on the Dangeroos side?.