Woodland fire pit construction

[Paulm]

Looking to make a safe ground based fire pit area in some woodland I have access to, for regular use, but unsure how to go about it, what materials to use etc.?

I do have some concerns over fire risk in the area, which is largely scots pine, so would want it to be as safe as possible.

Currently using a raised metal fire pit but finding that a bit restricting in size, use of grills, dutch ovens etc. so would prefer to sort out a safe ground based fire area for ongoing use.

Ideas and advice very welcome

 

[Robson Valley]

I live in the Boreal Forest Biome, Interior Cedar-Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone.
Fortunately, so much of it is geologically recent that scraping off the needle duff to bare clay/mineral soil is easy.

Duff = $2 word for the shallow organic layer of twigs and dead & resin-filled needle drop.

I would not do what you want to do. Very good idea but also a great risk of starting a ground fire in the needle duff.
Instead, I'd look for at least one more metal fire container. Certainly a convenience for food prep.
= = =
If you hear of British Columbia going up in smoke, you're right. State of emergency declared. No open fires.
Dozens of forest & range fires in the last 24 hours, many communities evacuated and properties burnt to the concrete.
People are literally on the run. Major highways closed, power lines burnt down, we have it all.

 

[wingstoo]

We did this on a piece of land we had access to for long term activities

2007_0422BRIGITMEET0035 by S1...., on Flickr

 

[Jaeger]

Aye Up,

Did you see this?

+1 to Robson and wingstoo.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145955

 

[Mesquite]

Dig a hole about 1ft bigger around than the fire you plan to have and about 10" deep then fill full of pea shingle.

I've seen this method used and it worked very well

 

[Paulm]

Thanks guys. I was at the woods again today and cleared a small area, decided to stick to using the above the ground metal fire bowl for now, can't get comfortable with the fire risks of anything on/in the ground still in that location, better safe than sorry I guess !

 

[crosslandkelly]

You could use some old decking to make a frame about a metre square, then fill it with soft sand and tamp it down to compact it. This will raise your firepit 100-150mm off the ground.

 

[Robson Valley]

It's been bad here. 40C/104F and wind in the shade at my place yesterday afternoon.
Sun is an orange ball when you can see it. Visibility a mile in smoke.

180 new forest fires in the last 48 hours burning mostly out of control.
Approx 7,000 evac with the clothes on their backs and not much more.
Firestorms leave little time. Whole neighborhoods burnt to the concrete.

 

[Jaeger]

Aye Up,

Sounds like some are having it bad in Canada.

Despite the abundant availability of it I have often wondered why, when the fire risk is so great, that so many houses in North American woodland is made from - wood!?

Four hundred years ago after the Great Fire of London we learned the lessons of wooden houses and began to use different materials.

Strangely we seem to have forgotten that lesson with the recent tower block fire in London.

 

[Robson Valley]

My ranch friends got out OK, they were running at 2AM.

The common sense is to reduce the fuel load in the perimeter surrounding homes.
May not be obvious but most cities try to do that. Just bad luck that so many of the new fires are interface = people and structures involved.

One major factor has been the great number of new fires and the strong winds.
Down south, there's a lot of dry grass ranch land and greasy sage brush. Those fires can do 60mph, easy.
These develop into fire storms capable of lifting meter-long flaming tree branches and dropping those a mile or more from the fire front.

Much cooler today, evacuees are streaming up north through our village, now some 14,000+ of them. We are on just about the only escape route in the province.
The number will more than double if the Evacuation Alert for Williams Lake (8AM today) turns into an Evacuation Order.
We're well supplied with food and fuel. We can isolate from the grid in 15 seconds if we have to.

The normal peak to our wildfire season isn't for another 6 weeks, at least.

 

[Paulm]

Seems like there's no real "recipe" for a fire pit, lots of variables and different ideas, so here's what I did in the end in case anyone else finds it useful

Dug down through the pine needles and layer of dry vegetation a few inches into the underlying loamy soil, deeper than this picture shows, and took out all the roots I could find.





Put in some dense building blocks on edge to stop any outwards spread of fire underground, and put in a couple of inches of building sand to act as a bit of insulation/damper, as well as some sand round the outside between the blocks and the surrounding earth..







Filled the rest of the area with MOT1 type mix (crushed aggregate/scalpings), and prettied up the outside a bit, done !



Still to try it out so don't know if it will be okay ! Reckon it should be fine though, quite happy with it and I'll always be putting the fire out thoroughly anyway as well, can't be too careful !

 

[Robson Valley]

That's a serious fire pit. You have paid attention to the forest. Big enough that little will jump out.
I hope that you can enjoy many, many evenings there.

 

[dwardo]

Proper job that. Nice work.

 

[Janne]

Great job! Well designed, well executed!
Will last for many, many years!

 

[GGTBod]

Every time we have made a pit oven, stone age oven etc we do it on a shale beach just above the high tide line, can't imagine the damage caused underground by doing this in a woodland, maybe a river bank would work well but not in a woodland, JMO

 

[Janne]

I would have agreed, but he lined the bottom with a thick layer of builders sand. I do not think there will be much damage to the underlaying soil.

 

[Robson Valley]

There will be some leaching from the site from fire ashes. There will be some
percolation into the subsoil. If that has practically no organic content, you won't expect to
find plant root systems in it.

The bigger ecological issue with any site is the mere presence of people stomping around.
The compression of the soft forest soils will sharply reduce the availability of air in the soil.
Game trails and people trails are fair evidence of the result. Doesn't take much.

That's in part why you see serious logging equipment running on gigantic flotation tires.
Anything less will do a great deal of soil compression damage before reforestation.
It took about 6 billion trees I think but BC has caught up.

If you make little fires like we have hundreds of square miles of fire, it's a process of very rapid mineralization
which has a positive effect on forest regeneration. Not exactly damage, after the fact.
Our pines have serotinous cones and they will never open to scatter seed without the fire's heat.

Do note in the background what looks like a Weber-style kettle grill/BBQ. Nice cookers.

 

[Paulm]

There will be some leaching from the site from fire ashes. There will be some
percolation into the subsoil. If that has practically no organic content, you won't expect to
find plant root systems in it.

The bigger ecological issue with any site is the mere presence of people stomping around.
The compression of the soft forest soils will sharply reduce the availability of air in the soil.
Game trails and people trails are fair evidence of the result. Doesn't take much.

That's in part why you see serious logging equipment running on gigantic flotation tires.
Anything less will do a great deal of soil compression damage before reforestation.
It took about 6 billion trees I think but BC has caught up.

If you make little fires like we have hundreds of square miles of fire, it's a process of very rapid mineralization
which has a positive effect on forest regeneration. Not exactly damage, after the fact.
Our pines have serotinous cones and they will never open to scatter seed without the fire's heat.

Do note in the background what looks like a Weber-style kettle grill/BBQ. Nice cookers.

You caught me out with the Weber, lol

It was going free on facebay can you believe, all for the want of a hose down and a bit of wire brushing, got a nearly new Weber kettle bbq !

Didn't really need one, or want one, but then I am Scottish and couldn't resist

It's also a good size for popping a dutchie in, out of the way of the main fire if doing something low and slow, that's my excuse anyway

 

[Robson Valley]

If you can leave the Weber at the camp, so much the better. Sure was the right price.
Just because you aren't in your own kitchen, there's no reason to fight with the food
and pretend you had a good time.

Just get it going, put the food in and walk away.
Using apple wood for smoke for the first hour, I like 3 hours ar 275F to BBQ just about anything.

 

[Janne]

Porcupine?
Or is Mesquite better than Apple wood with that?