A campfire on a Shield rock campsite, with the lake going dark and the loons calling, is one of the defining experiences of Ontario backcountry. It's also not something you can always have. Fire bans shut down campfires during dry periods. Sustained rain makes fire building genuinely difficult. Some campsites have been picked clean of firewood for 30 metres in every direction. Building a reliable fire under real Ontario conditions -- not in your backyard on a dry Saturday -- requires specific knowledge and preparation.
Fire Regulations in Ontario
Before anything else: check fire restrictions. Ontario's fire rating system operates on a scale from low to extreme, and during high or extreme fire hazard periods, Restricted Fire Zones can be declared. When a Restricted Fire Zone is in effect, all open fires are prohibited -- including campfires in designated fire pits. Violations carry significant fines. Check the MNRF fire information page or call the park office before your trip.
In provincial parks like Algonquin and Killarney, campfires are only permitted in designated fire rings at established campsites. Do not build new fire rings or move existing ones. On Crown land, you may build a fire where it's safe to do so, but you're responsible for ensuring it doesn't spread and for fully extinguishing it before leaving.
Because fire bans can be declared at any time during your trip, always carry a stove for cooking. Never plan meals that require a campfire. Campfires are for warmth, light, and ambiance -- your stove handles the cooking.
Fire Building Basics
A fire needs three things in the right sequence: tinder (catches a flame easily), kindling (small sticks that catch from tinder), and fuel (larger wood that sustains the burn). The number one mistake is skipping to fuel too quickly -- stacking big logs on a fragile tinder flame and smothering it.
Tinder: Birch bark peels off dead (not live) trees and ignites easily even when damp -- the oils in birch bark are naturally flammable. Dead, dry pine needles work. If natural tinder is wet, bring your own: cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly are the most reliable commercial option. A single cotton ball burns for 3-5 minutes, which is enough to ignite damp kindling. Pack a dozen in a waterproof container.
Kindling: Dead twigs the diameter of a pencil or smaller. The key word is dead -- they should snap cleanly. If they bend, they're green or wet. Look for dead branches still attached to standing trees, especially on the sheltered underside of spruce and pine. These are often dry even after heavy rain because they're off the ground and protected by the canopy above.
Fuel: Dead, standing wood is almost always drier than wood on the ground. Ground wood absorbs moisture like a sponge. Split wood dries faster than round logs -- the interior of a dead log is often dry even when the outside is soaked. A folding saw (like a Bahco Laplander) makes collecting and processing fuel efficient. An axe is heavier and less versatile -- a saw handles everything you need for a campfire.
Wet Weather Fire Building
This is where most people struggle. After a day of rain, everything on the ground is soaked, the fire ring is full of water, and the air itself feels wet. Here's the approach that works:
- Drain the fire ring. Bail out standing water with a cup or your bailer. If the ring has a layer of soaked ash, scrape it to the side to expose drier material underneath.
- Find dry kindling. The dead lower branches on spruce and balsam fir trees are your best bet in wet weather. Snap them off the trunk -- they're sheltered from rain by the branches above and raised off the wet ground. Collect twice as much as you think you need.
- Build a platform. Lay a few pieces of wrist-thick dead wood in the fire ring as a platform. This lifts your tinder and kindling off the wet base of the ring.
- Use a reliable ignition source. Waterproof matches or a lighter. Don't mess around with ferro rods or flint and steel when you're cold and wet and need a fire for warmth -- those are skills for practice, not for emergency fire-building.
- Start small. Light your tinder (petroleum-jelly cotton balls), feed pencil-thin kindling slowly, and gradually increase the diameter of the wood you add. Each piece should catch before you add the next. Patience is the technique.
- Feed the fire from the top down. Lean larger pieces over the small flame so they dry from the heat below before they need to catch. Don't pile everything on at once.
Firewood Collection
In Ontario provincial parks, you can collect dead and downed wood for campfires. You cannot cut living trees -- it's illegal and also pointless, since live wood won't burn well anyway. In practice, popular campsites may be picked clean of easily accessible deadfall. This is another reason to arrive at camp with daylight to spare -- the firewood search can take time.
A folding saw (the Bahco Laplander is the Ontario tripper's standard) lets you process larger deadfall into manageable pieces. It weighs 200 grams and is far more useful than an axe for campfire-sized wood. If a campsite has been stripped of deadfall, paddle to a nearby shore and collect from there -- the waterfront areas get picked over first, but wood 50 metres into the bush is usually abundant.
Campfire Safety
- Keep fires small. A fire the size of a laptop screen is sufficient for cooking and warmth. Large fires waste wood, throw dangerous sparks, and leave larger fire scars.
- Never leave a fire unattended. Not even "for a minute" while you get water from the lake.
- Keep water nearby for emergency dousing.
- Be aware of overhead branches, overhanging tarps, and anything that could catch a spark.
- On windy days, don't build a fire. Sparks carry farther than you expect, especially in dry conditions.
Extinguishing Your Fire
This is non-negotiable: drown the fire, stir the ashes with a stick, drown it again. Repeat until you can hold your hand against the ashes without discomfort. If it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave. Buried embers can smoulder for days and reignite in wind. Every wildfire prevention poster in Ontario exists because someone thought their fire was out and it wasn't.
For a full campsite management approach including fire considerations, see our backcountry camping guide. For Leave No Trace fire practices, see our LNT guide.