Fire Lighting - Free Risk Assessment Template PDF
This free Fire Lighting risk assessment template is designed for forest schools settings. It outlines typical hazards and suggests control measures, helping you tailor the document to your organization. Use it as a starting point, customise in our online wizard and download a professional PDF in moments.
Activity Summary
Children will learn the full fire process in a forest school setting. This includes preparing the fire site, safely lighting a fire, managing it while burning, and practicing different methods to extinguish it fully. All steps are carried out with clear adult supervision and guidance.
Purpose of Activity
To teach students how to prepare, light, manage, and put out a fire using natural methods.
Benefits of Activity
- Builds confidence and a sense of achievement through successfully lighting a fire.
- Encourages patience and focus as children practice striking and maintaining a flame.
- Enhances understanding of survival techniques through hands-on fire lighting activities.
- Provides an opportunity to learn essential fire safety skills in a controlled environment.
- Enables participants to enjoy the sensory experience of fire while learning to anticipate environmental changes, protect themselves, and respond to airborne hazards.
- Supports emotional resilience and choice.
- Builds emergency readiness and confidence.
- Promotes preparedness, personal responsibility, and understanding of safe clothing choices around fire.
- Develops resilience, awareness of environmental limits, and self-protection.
- Teaches bodily awareness and self-care outdoors.
- Develops scientific thinking and hazard awareness.
- Ensures children benefit from knowledgeable guidance, role-modelling, and safe hands-on experience that builds trust and confidence in outdoor skills.
- Develops focus, skill progression, safe experimentation.
- Promotes self-control and peer accountability.
- Strengthens safeguarding while encouraging children to take responsibility for staying within agreed boundaries.
- Teaches site selection and environmental assessment.
- Builds understanding of fire lifecycle and patience.
- Develops precision handling and heat awareness.
- Encourages cleanliness and fire site readiness.
- Promotes spatial awareness and deliberate movement.
- Instils respect for supervision and process responsibility.
- Encourages structural thinking and maintenance.
- Gives participants the opportunity to use tools in a controlled environment, building practical skills, confidence, and responsibility while learning to work safely around fire.
- Encourages environmental awareness, material knowledge, and safe fire management while reinforcing the importance of using suitable, sustainable fuels.
- Encourages adaptability and informed judgment.
Hazards and Control Measures
| Hazard | Control Measures |
|---|---|
| Airborne fire hazards (sparks, embers, smoke) | Use only well-seasoned hardwood to minimise sparks and avoid resinous wood that spits. Seat participants upwind of the fire and monitor for wind shifts. Halt activity and move the group back if embers fly. Offer safety goggles where appropriate. Teach strategies for protecting eyes and airways, such as turning away or closing eyes. |
| Anxiety | Offer roles like observer or storyteller away from fire. Explain steps in advance, repeat safety rules. Encourage sharing feelings. Allow gradual approach. |
| Burns first aid | Keep burns kit, fire blanket and water within immediate reach. Ensure staff trained in outdoor paediatric first aid. Conduct a drill so children know where kit is and how to call for help. Log every incident. |
| Clothing ignition & unsuitable attire | Check for fitted, natural fibre clothing before approaching fire, with long hair tied back and no scarves or loose synthetic items. Provide spare clothing if needed. If unsuitable clothing is worn, assign an alternate role away from the fire. Keep fire blanket and water within immediate reach. Leaders model safe attire and explain flammability risks to participants. |
| Extreme weather (cold or hot) | Insist on layered, waterproof, warm clothing in cold weather and light, breathable, sun-protective clothing in hot weather. Offer extra clothing, hot drinks, or warming breaks in the cold. In hot weather, provide shade, sunscreen, hats, and regular hydration breaks. Cancel if extreme conditions pose significant health risks. |
| Heat discomfort | Provide shaded seating away from fire. Encourage hydration breaks. Use sunscreen/hats. Schedule restful period if heat intensifies or symptoms present. Monitor for heat fatigue. |
| Hot ash | Explain ash retains heat long after flames. Post-fire, stir thoroughly, check with gloved hand. Keep supervising until no warmth. Teach children that non-visible hazards persist. |
| Leader experience | Only trained and competent leaders permitted to lead fire lighting sessions. Leaders must have current outdoor first aid certification and practical experience managing fire safely. Regular refresher training and peer review of practice recommended. |
| Lighting method misuse | Demonstrate correct striker use: kneel, three‑point stance, strike away from body. Only one child lights cotton wool at a time with adult approval. Emphasise observation before participation. |
| Misbehaviour | Set fire circle rules and role-play them. Remove any child breaking safety behaviour immediately. Use positive reinforcement. Debrief actions to reinforce learning. |
| Missing child / child wandering off | Carry out headcounts before, during, and after fire activity. Staff are stationed around the site perimeter to maintain oversight. Use clear physical boundaries and establish a “safe return” signal. Any child leaving or re-entering must be escorted by an adult. |
| Overhanging vegetation | Select clearings without low branches. Use professional tree surgeon to remove hazards. Perform daily visual checks. Mark risky vegetation clearly as no-go. |
| Smouldering sticks | Children must never retrieve sticks. Only adults add fuel. Before letting anyone near, extinguish fire, stir embers, adult touches to check if cold. Confirm no heat remains before children re-enter the circle. |
| Storm kettle use | Use inside fire square. Children feed small sticks gently under adult guidance, arms away from chimney. Adult pours using gloves, bung chain and wooden handle. Ensure boiling guidance taught. |
| Surface fuel build‑up | Clear leaves, needles, debris within at least 2 m of fire. Use fire mat or bare ground base. Check terrain before ignition. Keep path to fire clear at all times. |
| Tripping near fire | Keep inner circle entirely free of tools, fuel, debris. Enforce walking in outer circle only. Model safe moving. Use seating logs to physically discourage entry into inner zone. |
| Unattended fire | Children must not leave their group’s fire unattended. If a group takes a break, the fire must be extinguished or an adult must remain nearby. Leaders rotate between groups to provide constant supervision of every fire. Fires are only lit and managed under adult oversight, and must be fully extinguished before the session ends. |
| Unstable fire surround | Use large hardwood logs rather than loose stones or bricks. Check stability each session. Replace any shifting or degraded logs immediately to maintain safe containment. |
| Unsafe tool handling near fire | Store tools and fuel in separate, clearly designated areas away from the fire. Children only carry tools under close supervision and outside the fire zone. Before starting, confirm all participants understand tool and fire domains. Teach and practise the sequence for approaching the fire: observe, pass fuel/tools safely, then step back. |
| Use of unapproved fuel in fire | Ban plastics, wrappers, and unknown artificial items from the fire. Only allow inspected, approved dry wood species to be used. Children must not collect or add fuel without adult inspection. Teach participants how different fuels burn, including moisture content, resin levels, and their effects on safety and smoke production. |
| Weather conditions | Check wind speed, humidity and drought risk. Cancel or postpone in high wind or dry conditions. Reassess throughout session. Tape off fire circle in adverse weather. Have indoor contingency ready. |
Related Risk Assessment Template Downloads
- Den Building
- Fire Lighting
- Forest School Tool Use
- Generic Forest School Site
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- Nature Walk Through Woodland
- Open Fire Cooking
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FAQ
How do I use this template?
Click “Edit Using Wizard” to customise the assessment for your organization, then download a PDF.
Can I edit the hazards and controls?
Yes, all sections can be adjusted in the wizard before exporting your final document.
