Fire banking

[faye]

What does the term exactly mean? How it is done? I have heard of the phrase "bank the fire" a lot of times in camping term but I never understand what it means.

[lbean]

When you bank a fire you are taking the ashes and using them to cover the live coals. The reason you do this is to keep the fire low, you do not want it to go out though.

[Michael]

Banking the fire makes it easier to start it up the next morning. The hot coals stay hot because the ash around them insulates them and traps the heat in. The next time you want the fire to start up, you scrape the cold ashes away, revealing hot coals, then toss some kindling on. The fire starts right up again, really quickly.

It's a good habit to be in if you plan to camp some place for a couple of days. Using banked coals is a lot easier than starting up a fire from scratch.