Old BSA Baker Tent

[Bob White]

Building the firs under the awniong is a very bad idea for a number of reasons besides the danger of fire, the carbom buildup from the smoke damages the fiber shortening the life of the tent and inhibiting the water repellancy.

 

"Near" is not measurable. What is too near the tent would depend on factors that can be contolled. Such as size of the fire, position of the tent to the wind, surrounding vegetation. While you should never build the fire near enough to be a hazard you can build it near enough to be effective. It all depend on you knowledge of fires and fire safety.

 

Since tents are not vegetaion I would not be inclined to use the vegetaion rule for determining the distance from the fire and more inclined to use the factors I mentioned previously.

 

If you are sleeping in a baker tent in frigid weather you are probably better off closing the awning than building a fire anyway.

 

However as a scout we used Baker tents in my patrol. We grouped them in threew overlapping the awnings to make a shared common area under canvas. at nigh a small reflector fire was built a few feet away from the opening, longer timber was used as fuel for the fire so they could be fed into the fire a little at a time from a distance without leaving the comfort of our sleeping bags. (sort of a combination of a reflector fire and a star fire.)

 

My point being that the "near" is an ambiguous term. A fire that poses no hazard is far enough away. A fire that could pose a hazard is too near.

[gcnphkr]

I did not know that about the effect of carbon on the canvas. Never who build a fire large enough to heat the canvas but I can see how maintaining a good seal would be a problem.

 

Here is a nice set of photos showing the versatility of the tent. http://www.bushcraftliving.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2542