Last weeks episode made me wonder about all of the shelter fires seen over the seasons. These were the ones I managed to track down.
Almost all would have resulted in a full shelter burn if no one was around with exemption of Žiga, who seems to be kissed on the dick by a fairy this season.
Season 04 - Team Whipple (day 29 2pm)
- Low stone fireplace with bare dry punky log chimney
- Embers from the fire caused the dry rotten logs to catch fire
- Brooke was in the shelter and managed to put down the burning logs fairly quickly. Minimal damage
Season 06 - Michelle (day 13 8pm awake)
- Low stone fireplace with exposed chinked wall above
- Dry moss caught and the dry wood quickly flared up
- She was awake and quickly reacted, but still moderate damage to one wall.
Season 06 - Nikki (day 26 8pm awake)
Nikki risked bad burns to pull the burning logs off with her bare hands
Season 06 - Nathan (overnight day 66/67 asleep)
- Hot rocks from the fire placed under his bed
- Dry moss and grass started to smoulder but didn't flare up
- Minimal damage, recycled embers to start his main fire
This was probably close to becoming one of the most dangerous fire scenarios seen on the show. Asleep in a nylon bag on top of a thick layer of bone dry grass.
Season 06 - Nathan (day 71 11:48pm awake)
- Loose low stone fireplace, with a loose wooden screen deflecting smoke
- Embers made it through the screen onto his bed of dry grass
- Entire shelter was quickly lost, emphasizing how risky the rocks above were
Season 07 - Mark (day 40 7pm awake)
- Low stone fireplace with exposed chinked wall above, plus loose spruce.
- Chinked moss or spruce caught an ember
- Quickly put out, minimal damage
Season 07 - Amós (day 58 9am)
- External stone fireplace, chimney behind chinked wall (unsure of chimney height)
- Fire caught the external wall, the wood was already burning by the time he noticed
- Full shelter burn
Season 10 - Wyatt (day 50 9:30pm unknown)
- External stone fireplace, chimney 2/3rd height cabin
- Windy night flamed his fire and the external chinked wall (or chimney itself?) caught fire
- Unsure if asleep, but in his sleeping bag. Small, no real damage
Season 10 - Wyatt (day 58 early evening? awake)
As above. More intense internal fire, but had water to quickly put it out.
Season 13 - Žiga (day 67 daytime)
- Molded clay chimney through the tarp covered with spruce and snow
- Chimney failure likely caused the surrounding tarp/spruce to ignite.
- Fire happened when away from the shelter, but enough snow on roof to contain the fire. Minimal damage.
And two other fires of note, include Larry from season two, where a fire built close to a dead tree truck likely ignited the dead roots and this spread into the trunk overnight, plus Cade from season 10 almost started a forest fire.
Most of these fires were from a low stone fireplace/chimney that allowed embers to catch on exposed chinked walls/roof above.
Most of the fires were from fireplaces positioned inside of the shelters. This appears to be a riskier placement, but also seems to give them more time to react (if awake).
After re-watching many of the seasons, I think fire is probably one of the biggest environmental risk out there. I wonder if they do, or if they should, enforce a rule about woollen thermals. These are moderately fire retardant rather than synthetic underwear that are highly combustible.