Safety matters

Accidents at camp account for a significant proportion of the total reported to The Scout Association each year and camp cooking entails some of the most obvious hazards. John Grantham looks at how a few sensible safety precautions can prevent accidents

Cooking on an open fire has an age-old appeal. However, this does not mean that you have to prop pans and billies haphazardly on burning logs – logs which will eventually crumble, tipping the cooking containers and spilling the contents. It will happen this year and several children will suffer as a result.
As an alternative, many Groups now use specialist cookers, fuelled by gas, paraffin or even petrol. Most opt for central catering, with sturdy cookers placed in a safe area within the kitchen area placed on a sound, flat surface.
One of the first small personal cookers was the Camping Gaz ‘Bluet’. The C200 gas canisters for these are fitted into the base and, when the burner assembly is screwed in, the canister is pierced by a sharp spike. In good condition and trained hands, they are safe for heating small containers of food. However, once pierced, the gas canister cannot be resealed. Later stoves tend to use screw-in, self-sealing canisters, which are easier to store and use.
Confusion between these newer ones and the C200 has led to serious incidents. If an attempt is made to ‘screw’ a C200 canister into the stove without first removing the burner assembly, the pierced canister can be expelled with great force, spewing gas. Even when correctly used, the rubber seal is a critical component. With some of these stoves being over 10 years old, the seals must be considered suspect. Remember, once a canister has been inserted and pierced, it cannot be removed until empty. If it leaks, the stove must be placed in the open, away from sources of ignition, until the canister is empty.
Recent incidents with a number of stoves, including the ever-popular Trangia, point to the fact that adequate training and supervision is essential and Scouts should be observed and tested periodically. Stoves that rely on vaporising volatile liquids (such as petrol) should be considered specialist equipment and avoided for general use. Alternatives, such as Greenheat
Fuel, a non-explosive, non-toxic gel fuel, are worth investigation.
Stability is another key consideration with personal stoves. Depending on the particular make and model used, personal stoves will have varying stability characteristics, but all are incapable of taking large, heavy cooking containers. A four-litre dixie of water should never be heated on such small stoves.
Cooking entails some obvious hazards. Hot liquids and fats can cause disfiguring burns and scalds and while we can, perhaps, accept the odd instance where someone accidentally places their arm too close to a boiling kettle and suffers a minor scald, it is clearly unreasonable to ask a 10-year-old to move a cast-iron pan with 30 cooked sausages in it.
It is beyond their physical ability and the resultant burn, predictable.

John Grantham is managing director of Scout Insurance Services Limited.