If things get out of hand call 911 immediately. Take your cell phone with you and a rake and an extinguisher.

Do not put aerosol cans, full or empty, into  fires. They can throw hot metal parts  a considerable distance and inflict serious wounds.  The same goes for dry cell batteries, and oil based paints as well as thinner and turpentine or other flammable liquids.  If you do not know what you are burning, don't !!!   Wood which has been painted with lead based paints should not be burned since both the fumes and ashes are toxic.

Do not burn plastics and foams.  Some of the fumes will be corrosive and others can be extremely toxic.  Unless you are a trained chemist you will most probably be unable to spot the materials which pose no hazard.

There are some precautions which need to be exercised with such simple things as charcoal grills, campfires, disposal of ashes and trash burning in trash barrels.  In many places the soil closely resembles peat and peat moss.  Siting  campfires, disposal of ashes and trash burning on such ground is risky.  The ground can be  ignited and burn unnoticed as it travels below the surface and along the root system. It can require large amounts of water and hoeing of the ground to extinguish such fires and they may go unnoticed for long periods of time.  Throwing stove ashes in such areas poses risks because a day old bucket of ashes may contain a surprising number of hot coals.  It is not unusual to send a child out to the edge of  the woods to dump a bucket of ashes.  Will the child make sure that there are not hot spots?

Burning trash in a barrel in which some holes have been punched seems a safe operation.  That is not always the case.  Such fires should be kept small and hardware cloth should be carefully affixed over the open end.  A simple piece of ½ inch  hardware cloth cut and bent to slide over the top of the burn barrel with 6 inches of overlap will catch most flying hot debris, but that does not excuse one from the responsibility of carefully observing  the fire.  Keep a garden hose ready.  It never hurts to soak the area around a potential burn area before lighting.   Do not use accelerants to start your fire.  If you are using a charcoal grill, there are inexpensive devices which  can be used to ignite the charcoal with a few pages of old newspapers.  No kindling is needed.

This device is very simple to use and gives out hot coals in 5-10 minutes.  Besides the visible handles and the charcoal in the stove pipe, there are two or three crumpled up pieces of dry newspaper below the charcoal.  The paper and the charcoal are separated by a coarse grid.  The charcoal requires no starter fluid and is simply ignited by lighting the paper.  It should rest on a safe, non-flammable surface.  We recommend damp sand or gravel.  When the charcoal is fully ignited, one simply pours it into the grill and enjoys cooking a meal free of starter fluid.  Avoid coloured paper. The dyes may furnish toxins when burned.  Black news ink is based on elemental carbon, as are your briquettes.  The filler in newsprint is calcium sulfate and is not a health hazard.  The redactor's starter is going strong after 20 years.  His father fashioned his own from a similar picture and saved $15 less materials but had the fun of doing it.

Keep your fires small and feed with care.  Big fires can mean big risks.  Try to burn when there is very little wind.  An overcast day with potential scattered showers is not likely to extinguish your fire, but it will  reduce the chances of spreading.