Campfires can you do without?

We've had too many close calls with wildfires. We had a mandatory evacuation from our cabin some years ago. Another time we watched as smoke jumpers and a helicopter fought a fire less than a mile away. While backpacking many years ago, I helped fight a small 1-2 acre fire ten miles from the trailhead right near our camp. It took 8 to 10 of us three or four hours to put it out. Our most frightening experience was when we were mountain biking and had a forest fire break out between where we were and where we had to go to get out. We rode seven or eight miles back to the vehicle with the fire no more than a quarter mile to our left, sometimes just a couple hundred yards away. Flames were up to 50' above the tree tops. Yeah, we were scared. That fire burned ten square miles in 10 hours.

With those experiences, we are not ones to have fires very often. On those rare occasions when we do, it's spring or fall when there's been adequate moisture and the temperatures are low so we need the heat. And our fires would be considered puny by most people. We haven't yet had a campfire this year. One real positive about not having campfires -- you get a much better view of the stars as your eyes get used to the dark.

I would guess that if people had as many up close and frightening experiences with wildfires as we have had, they would be like us and rarely feel the need for a fire.