There’s nothing more relaxing than spending outdoors while huddled around a campfire.
But before you head to bed, you need to make sure that your campfire is out.
Here’s the thing, though – what if you don’t have water to extinguish the fire? What are your options?
If you want to know how to put out a fire without water, there are some things you can try. Check out our practical guide that will come in handy during your camping trips or backyard adventures.
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Putting Out a Fire Safely
The most obvious and well-known way to put out a fire is with water.
It is just common sense, right?
But what if you don’t have access to any water source? What can you do in this case?
When you have no water with you, the smartest thing to do is to avoid setting up a campfire. This will spare you from the worries of what to do next when you’re done with it.
However, this is not always a practical choice. For instance, you will need a campfire to stay warm or to cook food. This is particularly true when you are out camping or backpacking. Fire is necessary for survival when it comes to performing these tasks.
However, you also need to keep in mind that the fire needs to be extinguished after use. This is why you must have all the proper tools to make it possible.
Otherwise, you are exposing yourself to great danger. This can leave so much damage and even loss of life for humans and creatures in the forest. Would you really allow these to happen?
On the other hand, there are dangers when you fail to put out a fire incorrectly. When you do not perform proper measures, you may run the risk of compromising your safety. This is why the right skills are a necessity to successfully extinguish the fire.
How to Put Out a Fire Without Water
Water is the best thing to use to put out a fire.
It only makes sense, since water and fire are two opposing forces, right?
Another thing – water helps to cancel fire out in an instant. It cools down the hot embers, which prevents the fire from re-igniting.
But what if there is no water you can use?
Generally, you will need to wait until the fuel burns up completely. Then, the air should be able to cool down the embers afterward.
Well, if you have plenty of time, it may be fine to wait for this whole process to complete. But mind you – it takes between 12 and 24 hours total wait time. Before then, it is not quite safe for you to leave the embers still burning.
What is the best way to hasten this process?
First, let us study the different elements that are necessary for producing fire:
Heat, oxygen, and fuel.
These are key elements that make it possible to create fire. Thus, if you need to extinguish a fire, you need to eliminate one or all of these elements. If you don’t use water, though, it will take longer to put the fire out.
Here are three things you can try to put the fire out without using water:
1. Allow the fire to finish burning up the fuel.
This is a time-consuming thing to do, yet it works.
If you have no water, you can simply allow the fire to burn up the wood or fuel until it turns into coals. Afterward, you can throw sand and dirt on the embers using a shovel. Stir the hot coals and sand together occasionally to make sure it is put out completely.
2. Fire Built in a Deep Hole
This is another way to extinguish a fire without having to use water.
But you have to begin by choosing carefully where to start the fire.
Basically, the idea is to make it easier for you to put the fire out by using dirt. This is possible when the fire is not on the ground’s surface.
When you dig a hole and start a fire that deep, you can easily dump dirt to cover the burning wood. Just replace the sad and dirt pulled out after using the fire. Now, isn’t that a much easier way to bury hot coals?
3. Rotating Soil Under the Hot Embers
This is the last and quite effective way to put out a fire without the use of water.
What this simply means is that you need to use dirt to mix into the hot embers.
First, you need to allow the fire to completely burn down the fuel or wood. Once there is nothing but embers left, dig down into the stack of hot ashes using your shovel. The goal is to reach the lining of the dirt found on the pit’s base. You need to use the dirt to dilute embers.
Read More: Can You Burn Wet Wood – Surprising Facts You Never Knew!
Additional Tips on How to Put Out a Fire Without Water
Now that you know these basic tips, let us talk about tools. Having proper tools is essential to ensuring the correct and effective extinguishing of fire.
If you have no water around, yet you need to extinguish a fire, it is important to have the right tools in hand. This means that you need a dependable shovel to do this.
A shovel is useful for digging and dumping sand onto your fire. You may be able to get away with it using your hands but a shovel makes things more efficient.
Do you need more tips on how to put out a fire correctly? Here is a very helpful video that will allow you to extinguish that fire to make sure it does not cause dangers to the surrounding areas:
