Public Commons

Using Campfires

To use a campfire, find a campfire location and get a permit. To find a designated campfire, consult our map. To get a permit, review the material in User Guide: Campfires from this Topic's details. You'll need to undergo some simple safety training.

Published rates (including insurance) are pretty steep, although if you can get a campfire as part of a park program, such as Dufferin Park has done, you can do better. As the result of the efficiencies of group training, Dufferin booked 328 fires from June to Dec of 2012.

To get a new campfire designation in your local park, be prepared to be persistent. Again the Topic details have some stories that may help.

See PREZI: Campfire picture show for a picture album showing how campfires came to neighbourhood parks in Toronto.

Understanding Campfires

Fire has been part of the human experience for tens of thousands of years. We cook with it, socialize around it, and marvel at it. Few people have a hard time controlling it or being safe around it.

But Parks, Forestry and Recreation management is focused almost entirely on process with little regard to outcomes or common experience. Their main goals are compliance with their procedures, and protection against any kind of liability.

As such, they are a little less than enthusiastic about activities like fires that seem to have risk associated with them. Not only do fires burn, but park managers have often said that campfires can attract rowdy and unsocial behaviour.

In our opinion, they really need everyone's help with this.

See Topic details for more information.