Cooking in Shelters
This poll ask how you react when you come upon a shelter only to find someone cooking a meal sleeping platform.
forget bears, mice. just outside the shelter is fine. the bears have to fight off a dozen well fed hikers. the mice dont, they just end up scurrying around your head all night. (another reason i prefer to tent, although ive witnessed some crazy mouse acrobatics at shelters in NH and ME.)
it rains, cannot cook in tent, if there is a table it is not covered or level. the shelter is level, does not rock, and is out of the rain. Kind of make sense to cook there, what are your options, I never heard anyone complain or even question the practice.
True story, Last year at Lamberts Meadow Shelter in central Virginia. This young thru-hikershows up at dark. He has been frieghtend by a bear. He decides to cook in the shelter as opposed to the picnic table 5 yards away. He has one of those little alcohol stoves and while lighting it, he dumps it over and starts a fire on the floor of the shelter between 2 sleeping hikers. Everyone scrambles up and I throw the kid a water bottle and tell him to dump it on the fire. He does not want to make a mess and holds off a few seconds. Thats when the fire burns thru his un-noticed bic lighter and it explodes in 3 directions and his hair briefly catches on fire. He ended up with a few minor burns and some burn spots on some equipment. We were all lucky that he had put his plastic fuel bottle behind him before lighting the stove. I guess there are a few lessons here, like "don't cook in the shelter" or "when you have a chance to put out the fire, do it now".
Exactly, I've witnessed cooking in shelters for 50 years. Doesn't bother me.
The only thing I worry about is the over flowing alky stove catching the place on fire - if it is pouring rain and there is room I have no problem if someone cooks in shelter.
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing." Abraham Lincoln (1855)
Originally Posted by moldy
Oddly I remember hearing about that a while ago. I think the real moral is "Don't be an idiot and play with a flammable liquids fire next to people that are sleeping."
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Other: I don't care and wouldn't even notice.
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
Alke is silent no pop or crack.. if it catches - oops - I lost a shirt during a test of a new stove. My skin was burning and the shirt on my shoulder. As hikers as a group you are constantly looking for Etiquette on WB - clearly it is a lost cause... Sort of like expecting others to bath in a stream before showing up....Something that I would considered - as an old fart,
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Explain the proper etiquette in a polite manner and I'f you do meet resistance ; well what's the saying, " you can't fix stupid".
It's always a few knuckle heads that think that no one tells them what to do.
I'd then pitch my tent far away from the shelter and be done with it.
Getting lost is a way to find yourself.
Other: Never even thought about this before. Didn't bother me then when people did it, won't bother me now. Cook away.
Don't take anything I say seriously... I certainly don't.
don't bother me none. i don't stay in the dumps
Other,So what are having for diner tonight?
Now I could be wrong about this,but I'm thinking that an Alcohol fire is best extinguish by smothering,instead of throwing water on it,?Anybody?
Correct - NEVER throw water on an liquid fuel (or grease) fire! It just speads it farther.
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Thanks,yep folks,don't do that,but try not to use your bag either..it'll melt.if your cooking keep a bandana on hand.Sorry for the drift,little latatitude on this one please.
Apparently there is good reason that the alcohol for backpacking that I buy in the paint department of the hardware store alcohol is marked "marine stove fuel". Fires are especially dangerous when they break out on small boats. Water will not extinguish burning petroleum products, but can put out alcohol fires. If you doubt this, pour lots of water into some alcohol and then try to light it. Please, however, don't try the same experiment with gasoline.
Wow,I had no idea.Ok,I will try this.....but not tonight.Although testing at night would be the way I would test it,as the flame is hard to see.Thanks so much for bringing to everyones attention.I would like to hear from others that have some experience with this.
I have the good fortune to be employed as a chemist for the State Fire Marshal so I have a little experience with ignitable liquids and fires.
The first thing to understand is that a fire requires 4 things. Fuel, oxygen (air), heat, and a chemical reaction. Remove one and the fire is extinguished.
Petroleum products typically float on water. That's why using water to douse them can (not will) spread them. If it is a small petroleum fire (an ounce or two of fuel), sufficient water may remove enough heat to extinguish the fire. I would suggest that the volume of water exceed the volume of petroleum. If in doubt, skip the water. Smothering (eliminating oxygen) is a better choice.
Alcohol mixes with water; it doesn't float. So the fuel is diluted to the point it won't light (more or less a disrupted chemical reaction) and also the heat is removed. Again, use sufficient water, a volume at least double to the volume of alcohol involved. Someone reading this is thinking, equal volumes would work. Probably true in an ideal world but the real world is seldom ideal. More water is always better. Again, smothering is still a better choice.
Last edited by perrymk; 05-15-2012 at 06:22.
Well thank you very much,that there question kept me up late,and woke me up in the end.I kinda had a feeling it was not so cut and dry,but then I guess it was.certainly would not want to leave the folks hanging on such an important subject as fire.Thanks again Perrymk you were the right person to answer that question and I'm glad that it was an easy one for you.Now do you come in a travel size?and how much do you weigh?
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