According to smokeybear.com a roaring fire is both a success, and a responsibility. It is the camper’s job to properly maintain and extinguish your campfire so that future campers can do the same.

Maintaining Your Campfire

Once you have a strong fire going, add larger pieces of dry wood to keep it burning steadily

Keep your fire to a manageable size

Make sure children and pets are supervised when near the fire

Never leave your campfire unattended

Never cut live trees or branches from live trees

Don’t burn dangerous things!

Never burn aerosol cans or pressurized containers. They may explode.

Never put glass in the fire pit. Glass does not melt away, it only heats up and shatters. Broken slivers of glass are dangerous.

Aluminum cans do not burn. In fact, the aluminum only breaks down into smaller pieces. Inhaling aluminum dust can be harmful to your lungs.

Pack it in, Pack it out.

Be sure to pack out your trash. It is your responsibility to pack out everything that you packed in.

Extinguishing Your Campfire

When you’re ready to put out your fire and call it a night, follow these guidelines:

Allow the wood to burn completely to ash, if possible

Pour lots of water on the fire, drown ALL embers, not just the red ones

Pour until hissing sound stops

Stir the campfire ashes and embers with a shovel

Scrape the sticks and logs to remove any embers

Stir and make sure everything is wet and they are cold to the touch

If you do not have water, use dirt. Mix enough dirt or sand with the embers. 4 Continue adding and stirring until all material is cool.

Remember: do not bury the fire as the fire will continue to smolder and could catch roots on fire and start a wildfire.