Trash Burning In Campfires, Not A Good Idea

Above, a campfire at a camping trip I recently attended. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Who hasn't gone camping and had a nighttime campfire? Most everybody has.

Who has also burned trash in the the campfire? I'd hazard to say that most everybody has, including me.

However, burning trash in a campfire is not a good idea.

RV Life has an article on just this subject. After reading it, I'll never burn trash in a campfire again.

It starts with:

Most campers don’t think twice about burning trash in campfires. But as one family in Utah recently discovered, even a harmless paper plate tossed into the flames can mean big trouble. 

“A small fire was quickly doused by bystanders after a camper’s burning paper plate was blown out of a fire pit and ignited the nearby dry brush,” writes Joseph Whitham for the St. George, Utah newspaper. Fire fighters arrived minutes after workampers and campers reached for hoses to put out the flames. The fire spread fast enough to put several campers’ belongings and the entire campground in jeopardy. When it was over, nobody got hurt, however the incident proved that burning trash in campfires is never safe on many different levels.

The article then goes into different reasons why burning trash in campfires is toxic and risky and ways to prevent wildfire.

To read more, go here.