[Sca-cooks] open fire safety

[Stefan li Rous]

Brangwayna Morgan commented:
<<<
<<While I'm sure
people burn themselves and even catch  fire over their stoves today,
sometimes even burning the house down,  but I don't think we see quite
as many coroner's reports stating that  the cause of death was "falling
into the fire" as we used to in the  18th and 19th centuries, and
previously.>>

Considering how few people have functional fireplaces in their homes  
today,
and how comparatively rarely those are used compared with historic  
times, it
should hardly be surprising that we see far fewer reports of "death  
by falling
  in the fire".  The opportunity to do so simply doesn't exist as  
frequently
as it used to. >>>

Yes. This is one of the reasons I strongly recommend to newcomers  
that they make their outdoor event garb out of natural fabrics.  
Unfortunately, some people seem to leave their common sense at home  
when they leave for Pennsic, Gulf Wars etc.

While these reports are old, as I've never seen any that were newer,  
they are still a good warning that problems are still allowed to  
develop. These are in the PENNSIC section of the Florilegium:
P19-fire-rpt.art  (12K)  9/ 1/90    Baron Durr's fire report for  
Pennsic XIX.
P23-fire-rpt      (27K)  9/30/94    Baron Durr's fire report for  
Pennsic XXIII.
P24-fire-rpt      (27K) 11/ 9/95    Baron Durr's fire report for  
Pennsic XXIV.

However, this is the article that I encourage everyone to read.  
Besides the pictures in it were drawn by William Blackfox and his  
work is not so easy to find anymore. Please encourage folks to read  
these, or similar, articles. It could save someone's life.
Fire-Book-art    (739K) 12/28/00    Baron Durr's Guide to Safe Fire Use.
Fire-Book-no-pics (23K)  1/12/96    Baron Durr's Guide to Safe Fire  
Use. (with
                                       pictures removed for easy file  
transfer.)

<<< Having had to guard an inebriated guest in our camp from falling  
into our
firepit at Pennsic this year, I was quite afraid that we might end up  
with a
perfectly period incident of the sort... >>>

Only one inebriated guest?

Stefan
(9 years of camping with the Boy Scouts made me aware of fire safety  
and fire dangers long before I joined the SCA. But the Boy Scouts  
didn't say much about cooking in long tunics and I don't remember  
using open torches there)
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****