Published:
September 28, 2022
Summer has transitioned to fall, bringing cooler air temperatures and shorter daylight hours. It’s the perfect time to indulge in one of life’s simplest pleasures: gathering around an outdoor fire.
You may have noticed that fire pits have grown in popularity over the last few years. Essentially outdoor fireplaces, they come in a range of sizes and styles to fit your outdoor space, from portable, wood-burning models to contemporary, built-in designs fueled by propane or natural gas. If you’ve been thinking about adding a fire pit, here are three surprising perks worth considering.
Fire Pits Offer Fun for all Ages
What’s wonderful about fire pits is that despite their Instagram-worthy moment of trendiness, the activity itself is sweetly old-fashioned. For many of us, an outdoor fire immediately brings back memories of sitting around a campfire as a kid, roasting marshmallows, and telling ghost stories.
An outdoor fire is a treat for kids and a special way to introduce your grandchildren to a screen-free activity you enjoyed at their age. Enlist the help of older kids when building the fire, and enforce a phone-free safety zone in the vicinity of the fire pit. Even teenagers get enthused about fires (bonus: they may more readily let down their guard and chat if they are looking at a fire instead of at you).
Fire Pits Stoke Camaraderie
Fire pits offer a low-stress way to gather with friends and neighbors. One of the reasons many people have added fire pits to their list of outdoor improvements in recent years has been a desire for ways to connect safely during COVID-19. Fire pits allow for both social distancing and in-person companionship, and the heat enables you to comfortably stay outside well into late fall and beyond. For people who struggle with the shorter days of winter, a fire pit may help you lean into the uniquely cozy delights of the season—a lifestyle approach known as hygge.
Fire Pits Promote Mindfulness
Mindfulness, the ability to be fully present with relaxed awareness and minimal distraction, is good for mental health. Gazing into a fire is a particularly effective way to practice mindfulness. It quiets your thoughts and engages your senses to help keep you in the moment.
There’s something mesmerizing about watching flames dance against an evening sky, listening to the soothing crackle of logs burning, inhaling the fragrance of woodsmoke, and feeling the warmth on your skin. Add the sweetness of homemade s’mores or the delicious saltiness of roasted hot dogs, and you’ve experienced a mindful activity with all five senses.
Safety Tips for Fire Pits
Where there is fire, there is risk. Drifting embers can quickly ignite clothing, dry brush and homes. Children, adults and pets may get burned by being too close to flames or falling onto fire pits. To prevent fun from turning to tragedy, the Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Team at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health recommends you follow these safety tips:
- Place fire pit at least 10 feet from your house and other structures or vegetation, such as low-hanging branches.
- Confine fires to a permanent outdoor fire ring, fireplace, portable outdoor fire pit, or chiminea.
- Check wind conditions and local wildfire regulations before lighting a fire.
- Move flammable materials away from your home exterior and clear gutters of debris.
- Keep a fire extinguisher, garden hose or five-gallon bucket of water nearby.
- Don’t allow flames to get bigger than two feet high and three feet in diameter.
- Place a metal screen over wood-burning fires to prevent sparks from escaping.
- Keep children and pets at least three feet from fires at all times and always supervise.
- Never use flammable or combustible liquids like lighter fluid or gasoline.
- Check with your doctor if you or your child has asthma or other respiratory conditions to make sure smoke will not be an irritant to airways.
- Be mindful of what you burn. Don’t use construction lumber, which may be chemically treated. Propane and gas fire pits burn cleaner than wood, with little to no smoke or sparks. The tradeoff is you’ll give up the crackle and smell of burning logs.
- Make sure there is ample clearance (and lighting) around seating areas so people can get up and move around without stumbling into the fire.
- Never leave a fire unattended, regardless of children or pets, and always put a fire completely out before leaving the site.
- Remember that embers can remain dangerously hot the next day. Take precautions to prevent children and animals from touching them until they have thoroughly cooled.
Fire pits are a family-friendly way to make memories together, as long as you take precautions to keep people, pets and property safe.