Before You Strike a Match

Woodland cooking is one of the great pleasures of a British camp, but embers, knives and uneven ground all carry a small tax. The trick is to deal with it before it happens. A properly stocked first aid pouch takes up no more room than a bag of marshmallows and will save your trip, or at least the evening.

Pack the following in a dry bag, and keep it in the same place every trip so you can find it by feel in dim light:

• Disposable gloves, a handful of pairs, plus hand sanitiser.
• Burn gel sachets or a burns dressing, plus a roll of cling film kept clean in its box.
• Sterile gauze swabs and a couple of non-adherent dressings.
• Roll of microporous tape, plasters, and a few sterile skin-closure strips.
• Triangular bandage, elasticated support bandage, and safety pins.
• Trauma shears for cutting clothing, and fine tweezers for splinters and ticks.
• Antiseptic wipes, blister plasters and a foil blanket.

Check expiry dates before each season. Gel and dressings that have been sat in a hot car all summer are worth replacing.

Treating Campfire Burns in the Woods

Most campfire burns come from three things: a hand on a hot billy can, an ember flicked onto a forearm, or someone stepping on a patch of ash that looks cold. Ash and buried embers can stay hot for a full day, so treat every grey patch around the fire as live.

For anything beyond a tiny red mark, the priorities are simple and the order matters:

• Stop the burning by removing the person from the heat. Smother any flame with a blanket or clothing, not with your bare hands.
• Cool the area under clean, cool running water for a full 20 minutes. In the woods, a stream, a water carrier with a pierced lid or a slow-poured bottle all work. Cooling reduces pain and limits damage to deeper tissue.
• Remove rings, watches and tight clothing from the affected limb before swelling begins, but leave anything stuck to the wound alone.
• Cover loosely with cling film laid in strips along the limb, never wrapped tightly around it, or with a sterile non-adherent dressing. Cling film is clean, doesn't stick and lets you see the burn.
• Keep the casualty warm with the foil blanket. Cooling a large burn can drop body temperature quickly, especially in a damp British wood in October.

Do not apply ice, butter, toothpaste, oil or crushed leaves. Do not burst blisters, and do not peel away clothing that has melted onto skin. A small superficial burn that reddens and stings will usually settle with cooling and a dressing. Anything that blisters, looks waxy, white, brown or charred, or is painless because the nerves are damaged, needs medical assessment the same day.

Knife and Axe Cuts

Woodland cooking means chopping kindling, and that means the occasional nick. Sit or kneel when using a knife, keep the cutting area clear, and never chop towards your own body or towards a hand holding the wood.

When a cut happens:

• Apply firm direct pressure with a sterile gauze pad or the cleanest cloth you have, and hold it there for a full ten minutes without lifting to peek.
• Raise the limb above heart level if you can, and keep the casualty sitting down.
• Irrigate once bleeding has slowed, using clean drinking water or sterile saline, then close with skin-closure strips and cover.
• Seek help for wounds that gape, won't stop bleeding after ten minutes of pressure, contain grit or bark you can't remove, or involve a deep cut to a hand, finger joint or tendon.

Deep, spurting bleeding needs firm pressure without release while someone else calls for help. Keep the casualty warm and still.

Sprains, Strains and Falls on Uneven Ground

Roots, mossy rock and last night's fire-pit trench catch out even experienced campers. A rolled ankle is the most common woodland injury after burns and cuts.

Use the four-step approach:

• Protect the joint by stopping the walk immediately. Walking it off makes things worse.
• Rest the limb and support it in a comfortable position.
• Cool it with cold stream water, a wet cloth, or a sealed bag of chilled water for up to 20 minutes every couple of hours for the first day.
• Compress and elevate with an elasticated bandage, snug but not tight enough to turn toes white or numb. Pad around the joint, not over it.

Improvised supports work well: a sturdy hazel or birch stick as a walking staff, a splint of straight branches padded with a rolled jumper and bound with a triangular bandage. If the casualty cannot bear weight after ten minutes, or the limb looks deformed, treat it as a fracture and arrange a careful carry or evacuation.

Knowing When the Woods Aren't Enough

Call 999 or 112 for any of the following: a burn larger than the casualty's palm, any burn to the face, hands, feet, joints or airway, all full-thickness burns, breathing difficulty, soot around the nose or mouth, confusion, or signs of shock such as pale clammy skin and rapid shallow breathing. Give a clear grid reference or GPS coordinates, describe the nearest track or car park, and stay with the casualty.

After you get home, watch any wound for a few days. Increasing redness, swelling, heat, throbbing pain, discharge or a fever all point to infection and need a GP or minor injuries unit. Check that tetanus cover is up to date for any wound contaminated with soil.

Keeping Your Head and Your Kit in Order

Run a two-minute briefing before you light the fire: where the water is, where the first aid kit lives, who is watching the children. Keep a bucket of water or a lidded pot of sand beside the fire, wear natural fibres rather than synthetics near flames, and never use petrol or meths to hurry a damp fire along. Then put the fire properly out, water and stir, water and stir, until it's cold to the back of your hand. A calm, prepared camp is a camp that stays out longer, eats better, and comes home with nothing worse than a splinter and a good story.