Article #R87. ============= Fire Hazards Gerry Giuliani The Leader, June/July 1984
The gas exploded. The Scout suffered second and third degree burns to his hands, arms, face and chest. Badly injured and in shock, he spent a few critical days in hospital. He needed two skin grafts and a long period of recovery.
This accident happened despite warnings from the adult leaders that using white gas to start a fire was a dangerous practice.
Fire hazards are no joke. We have a tendency to believe accidents will never happen in our camp. Until, that is, we experience a tragedy like the one described.
All leaders want their camping experiences to be safe and successful. The leaders in charge in this case felt the same way. I'm sure they looked long and hard at their experience and took steps to assure it wouldn't happen again.
One thing is certain. Words are not enough. The only effective way to limit the chances of similar tragedies is to build regular safety practices into your camp routines. There are a number of situations where an ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure.
Never use naphtha or white gas to start a fire. Naphtha vaporizes very quickly. When the vapours mix with air, the situation is explosive. The boy in our true story already had started the fire. It heated the added gas and sent explosive fumes towards him. The flames ignited the gas.
There are times when Scouters want to use a gimmick to light a campfire in a special way. If you do use fuel, I suggest a rag soaked with a bit of kerosene. Although kerosene vaporizes much more slowly than other gas fuels, take care and make sure participants stand well clear.
When the weather is damp, roll up your sleeping bag to keep it dry. Your body will warm it quickly once you crawl into it and you won't notice the damp air in your tent. If you feel a nip at your ears, put on a hat.
If it's absolutely necessary to warm up your tent and bag, place the lit lantern securely on a platform on the floor of the tent, and then get out. Remove it from a two-man tent after two or three minutes, put it out, crawl into the tent and let the sleeping bag do the rest.
Fill up away from any open flame or lit stove. Use a funnel to avoid spilling fuel.
Keep fuel cartridges away from heat, especially the spent one you've just removed. Empty cartridges always contain a residue. Fumes may escape, vaporize and ignite if there is a flame nearby.
Despite taking the best precautions when installing a new cartridge, it's possible to break the seal accidently and release gas under pressure. A nearby flame will ignite the quickly vaporizing fuel with explosive results.
Keep the size of the pot on a single burner stove to 30 cm (12") diameter or less. Particularly when you've sheltered the stove from wind, larger pots may trap the stove heat so that it warms the controls and the fuel container. If you touch hot controls, you may tip the stove and cause a fire. If the heat builds up too high, pressure in the fuel container may spray out fuel through the safety valve or, even worse, blow off the bottom of the fuel container.
1. Keep camp fuel in safe leak-free containers and store in a safe location away from tents, brush, cooking or firepit areas. Keep proper funnels available.
2. Make it a camp rule to fill stoves only at the fuel depot, and only if you can pick up the stove by the burner plate.
3. Train all your campers to light a fire and a stove properly. Make it a rule that campers will not be allowed to light a fire or stove without having demonstrated the ability and responsibility to do so safely.
4. Provide general supervision at all times. You can do this by working directly with inexperienced campers or by giving each camper a watchdog role. Based on your judgment, you might give patrol leaders, company executives or experienced boys and girls specific supervisory responsibilities.
5. Forbid cooking inside or beside tents. Allow no lanterns into tents to warm them unless absolutely necessary, and only when there's no one inside and an adult who is a competent camper handles the task.
6. Make it a specific expectation of all your campers that they will never use gas fuels to light fires. The only exception may be for a well planned campfire-lighting ceremony using kerosene only.
7. Know how to treat burns and extinguish fires. Have a useful first aid kit available in case an accident does occur.
By taking these precautions, you can keep the risks associated with fires and fuels at a minimum. It's the best way to ensure stories like the one that opened this piece will no longer be told.