Fire Safety in a Forest?

If a small fire is started in a forest clearing, how would a camper put it out?

I've got a scene in my fantasy WIP where a fire is started next to a path in a maple forest. This world is pre-industrial, so no fire trucks or helicopters. In this scene, the fire will get put out by magic once the wizard gets there, so what I'm looking for is how the foresters would attempt to deal with the fire before he arrives. Use shovels to smother it with dirt? Let the area where it started burn and attempt to contain it by digging fire breaks?

Also, after the fire is put out, what needs to be done to make sure the fire doesn't flare up again?

Thanks in advance for all replies.

ETA: Let me add another question here. If you were to create a magical device which could put out a fire, what would it need to do? Remove heat?

Thanks, this helps. In my story, the fire starts because an incendiary magical trap goes off next to the path and sets the undergrowth on fire. It'll be at least ten to fifteen minutes before anyone reaches the fire. Any ideas on how fast a brush fire can spread? How much area would be affected?

Thanks, Puma, I knew I forgot to mention something. The scene is set in a maple forest in early summer (San Francisco, CA climate). The trap which starts the fire was intended to immolate the person carrying the item, and when it goes off the item is buried under a pile of leaves next to the dirt and gravel path. So think lots of very hot flame.

I've been asking about brush fires because of the magical parameters. This forest is magical, so the trees teleport away from the fire and won't get burned. The fire's fuel would be whatever's left on the forest floor: leaves, undergrowth, twigs, other? What I'm trying to have happen is that a large circle gets burned, perhaps fifty feet across, maybe more, so that my mage can step in and save the day by putting out the fire. Until he gets there, the foresters would be trying to tackle the blaze.

Thanks, everyone, you've given me a lot to think about, and right now my thought is that I need to rethink my scenario.

A couple clarifications:

Yes, I'm putting a maple forest in a San Francisco-like area which is unusual, but I'm also using up a lot of my "bolognium" quotient for this story on the forest. The trees are very magical: they sing (hum), they teleport, and they have a deeper purpose which will be revealed by the end of this story. If a fire starts in the forest, they'll scream and teleport away from the flames, so the humans will immediately know there's something wrong. This forest is actually in a very large walled estate inside a city.

I'm hoping the magical nature of the trees will counter-balance a reader saying "hey, maples don't belong in this sort of climate"; it's also possible that I'm not putting in enough for a reader to know it's a SF-like climate. Story description so far is that it's summertime and they're in a city on a hill next to an ocean.

Thinking about it, given where the fire starts, it's unlikely any of the foresters would arrive before the mage. Even if they did, they'll only have a couple of minutes tops before he gets there, so they wouldn't have much chance to try to put the fire out. The information you've given me is useful, though, and I'm sure I can use it somewhere else.

Storywise, the trapped item was intentionally hidden in the leaves next to the trail by the person who was carrying it. She didn't know it was trapped, she just knew she couldn't take the item into the manor. The trap goes off later, possibly when someone else walks near it, but the trap fails in that it doesn't kill the intended victim. No one actually gets hurt.

What I need storywise is some way for my other characters to find the item. Sure, someone could just spot it next to the trail, but that's boring, so I'm thinking the trap should get triggered. I'm trying to work out the parameters of the trap. I like the idea of something spectacular like fire for several reasons: it shows the person who set the trap is playing for keeps, it demonstrates the magic of the forest, it demonstrates the mage's power and his reaction to his power, etc. I'd originally been thinking the magical trap would set off a normal fire, but given the probable lack of fuel, the resulting fire sounds like it would be easy to control. Instead, I could make the trap start a magical fire, in which case I can change the rules. Time to put on the thinking cap again....

Tsu Dho Nimh said:

NOTE: You will not get a "ring" of fire unless there is absolute calm air.

A tiny breeze will move the fire downwind easily.

Click to expand...

So a fire will move in the direction the wind is blowing (as long as there's fuel in that direction)?

Thanks, Puma. Yep, wheels are turning, and so far no smoke is coming out of my ears.

It's the software designer in me. It's much simpler to stamp out possible bugs in the design phase before they multiply in the implementation phase. I'll be hitting this section in about two scenes, so I wanted to make sure I had some understanding before I tried writing it. At the moment, I think I'm still going to make the trap a fire trap, but I can see I'll need to add some more details to make the scene plausible.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone!

Thanks for the links! Those look useful.

My mage can manipulate energy, i.e. temperature. I figure he can drain the heat from the area surrounding himself and therefore put out fire. It'll require him to walk into the burning area and put himself at risk. After he walks through an area, the ground will be cold. I'm also trying to figure out if he needs to do anything with the heat he's pulling away from the flames. He might need to use up the excess energy somehow.