GREENSBORO, N.C. — Gathering around a fire is the perfect summer into fall activity. It's festive, fun and relatively inexpensive. But every year more than five-thousand people end up in the Emergency Room with fire pit or outdoor heater related injuries.
The experts at Consumer Reports share some fire pit safety tips to prevent those accidents from happening.
Tobie Stanger, Consumer Reports Home Editor
"Ideally, you want to place fire pits or chiminea away from any structures, your house, any sheds, anything that could possibly burn. Go at least ten feet away and preferably up to 25 feet,” said Tobie Stanger
Raising your fire pit off of the ground is ideal. But be sure to follow the maker's instructions about how high it should be, and what surfaces can be underneath.
Stanger added, "You want to keep the fire away from anything natural that can burn - trees bushes and so forth. Clear over head so the smoke can rise up. Keep in mind, you don't need spark to start a fire. If the brush is dry and brittle enough the heat alone can ignite it."
CR says different types of wood create different types of fires. Avoid softer woods like pine or cedar because they tend to smoke and spark. Instead, choose woods that burn longer like hickory, oak or ash.
Once you've got a crackling fire, place a spark screen on top of the pit and keep a garden hose nearby to handle anything that gets out of control.
When it's time to call it a night, spread out the coals, ash, and any unburnt logs in the thinnest layer possible. Then, set your garden hose nozzle to a wide-spray and saturate the area until the embers die.