Arriving at your campsite
When you arrive, consider your safety as part of settling in. We recommend:
- Ensuring that caravans and tents are at least six metres apart and away from parked cars, to reduce the risk of fire spreading.
- Keeping a torch handy for emergencies – never use lighted candles.
- Making sure you know the campsite’s fire safety arrangements such as whether or not you can have fires and check where the evacuation meeting points are.
Whether you’re staying in a tent, yurt, shepherds’ hut or caravan, it’s important to consider how you can reduce your risk of fire.
Advice for tents
- Never use candles in or near a tent – torches are safer.
- Keep cooking appliances away from the tent walls as they could easily set alight.
- Never cook inside a tent.
- Don’t cook near flammable materials or long grass, they can set alight easily.
- Make sure you know how to escape by cutting your way out of the tent if there is a fire.
- Make sure everyone knows how to put out clothing that’s on fire – Stop, Drop and Roll
- Don’t smoke inside tents.
Staying in a caravan
- Fit and test a smoke alarm in your caravan.
- Take special care when cooking – don’t leave pans unattended.
- Turn off all appliances before you go out or to bed.
- Make sure ashtrays are made of a material that can’t burn – and never smoke inside your caravan.
- Don’t dry clothes over the stove.
- Remove any litter and rubbish near the caravan to reduce the risk of fire spreading.
- Make sure the caravan is ventilated, and never block air vents, to avoid a build up of poisonous gases.
- Consider keeping a fire extinguisher by the entrance, but heed safety advice when using them.
Using gas cylinders
- Don’t use petrol or paraffin to light a solid fuel stove.
- Keep flammable liquids (such as petrol and gas cylinders) outside and away from children.
- Only change gas cylinders when they’re completely empty and store them away from caravans and vehicles.
- Make sure the gas pipe connection is secure. If you suspect a leak, turn off the main cylinder valve.
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