Work Out - Fire

By Nancy Leasman of Long Prairie

All work and no play….well, you know that adage well.

So, Ron and I headed north, to Itasca. 

A relaxing time in one of the cabins at Itasca State Park. Photo by Nancy Leasman

We’d rented a cabin for one night and the next day would attend the book release of the Jack Pine Writers Group’s annual Talking Stick collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Our daughter, Dawn, the conservation biologist, had won honorable mention in the non-fiction category with her piece, “Banshee Keening Prairie.” (You’ll find another of her pieces in the next issue of Minnesota Conservation Volunteer.)

The cabin was just as you would want a cabin to be in the oldest (and second largest) state park in Minnesota. Old dark logs, wood floors, quilts on the beds, hand-crafted wooden chairs with split ash seats, a fully modern bathroom, and a stone fire-place.

Early in the evening, Ron started a fire in the fireplace and I settled in with a good book. As the flames picked up, I put the book down to watch the fire.

Firewood burned on the grate, an iron rack which allowed air to circulate under the fire. As the flames reached upward, occasional small sparks spit outward, but quickly extinguished. Bolder sparks and small coals dropped through the grate to the impervious floor of the fire box. Eventually a bed of coals built up to maintain the fire and emit that pleasant glow expected of a fireplace. Ron added more wood but just enough to keep the fire going. The little space beneath the grate and above the coals would have been perfect for roasting marshmallows, but a little tight to fit them in without torching them.

The fire would have gone out without the addition of more dry wood. A wildfire seeks its own fuel, building and racing to consume and destroy. As we know, wildfires create clouds of smoke that affect the air quality in a much larger area than the fire itself. A firestorm is a truly awful thing, difficult or impossible to control until it has burned every flammable thing in its path. 

Most people love a small controlled fire. We must be careful in choosing which fires to give more fuel.