Long burning leaf mould fires

[Robbo]

I'm possibly taking my nephews camping in the woods on my father inlaws farm thsi weekend. I asked if it would be possible to have a campfire my father inlaw said no (in the nicest possible way) as he was concerened the fire could start the soil burning due to all the leafmould in the soil as this happened a few years ago elsewhere on the farm.

The fire briagde extingushed an out of control campfire only for it to burst fore a few weeks later after burning underground.

Is this a common problem in woodland and can anything be done to prevent it ?

Andy

 

[spamel]

In pine forests, definitely. Also, if there are roots under the fire, they can smolder for ages and act like slow fuses. The best thing to do after a fire is to dampen the whole thing down, distribute the ash by hand so that you know it is not hot enough to flame up again and then jab hell out of the ground under and around the fire site with a pointy stick. Then pour water all over the ground, and check the ground to see if there are any hot spots. After this, cover the area back up with loose leaf litter so that nobody knows you visited. The only downside to all this is that it is good if you have a water source near by otherwise you'll be dumping your drinking water all over the place!!

 

[Neanderthal]

You could build your fire in an old metal dustbin lid balenced on a few bricks. This would keep it off the ground.

Have fun.

 

[gregorach]

I have lit fires on very peaty ground in the past, but only if the peat is wet. Ideally you want it to be so wet that it will put your fire out if you're not careful to keep it up on sticks. Even then, you don't want a big fire, and you don't want to use the same spot more than a couple of times. And of course, you need to make very sure that it's properly out and that the ground underneath is cool and damp.