Not so long ago, I conducted some research on the safety procedures for using Trangia stoves in a small group cooking context on outdoor education programs. Many colleagues kindly shared their safety procedures with me, and I offer this summary as an expression of my appreciation.
The research I conducted included the following:
- An analysis of the Standard Operating Procedures/Policies/Guidelines for the use of Trangia stoves in programs operated by six private schools, two state government schools, and two commercial outdoor education providers.
- Analysis of publicly available advice/commentary/instruction/policy on safe use of Trangias with school groups outlined in a range of State education departments guidelines, online discussions/blogs, and published articles.
It the report that follows I will: consider the rationale for small group cooking using Trangia stoves, consider the nature of the training provided, summarise not-negotiable safety principles, flag some additional principles that could be added to the not-negotiables, identify some other principles that are important to some practitioners/writers, and make some system-wide recommendations.
1. Small group cooking. Is the risk justifiable?
Supervised small group cooking on outdoor education programs can be an important activity that contributes to the achievement of educational aims and objectives. For example, small group cooking activities can provide opportunities for students to:
- Work effectively in a small group
- Develop important life skills that they may not get the chance to develop elsewhere in the school curriculum
- Experience some aspects of independent living by learning basic cooking skills.
- Experience the consequences of their actions. For example, if they fail to stir their food, it will burn.
Like all educational activities that provide opportunities for learning, small group cooking has some safety risks that must be appropriately managed by the supervising teachers.
Trangia stoves were invented by a Swedish company in 1925[1]. I purchased my first Trangia stove 32 years ago in 1991, and since then there has been no significant change in the design of the stove. This reinforces my view that the Trangia stove is a reliable, compact, complete cooking stove that is suitable for use by high school students if appropriate safety guidelines are provided, followed, and reinforced under appropriate supervision. For all the schools and organisations contacted in my research for this report, the Trangia remains the stove of choice when conducting small group cooking with students.
2. What kind of training should be provided to students?
Based on my research, I believe the following principles should be considered when providing training on Trangia stove safety with students.
- Students be provided with an opportunity to practice the assembly and correct use of the Trangia stoves. This would include filling the burner with fuel, lighting the burner, cooking some food that requires some stirring and pot/lid management, extinguishing the flame, completing the refueling process, and relighting the flame. The exact nature of what is practiced should be determined by the Trangia Safety Guidelines adopted by the school/organisation. There is some variation across schools/organisations regarding some of the safety guidelines for the use of Trangia stoves.
- Students be assessed (formally or informally) to confirm that they understand, and can complete all these tasks, while complying with the safety guidelines.
- A record be kept to confirm that all students have attended this training and demonstrated the ability to comply with the safety guidelines. This allows the group leader to have confidence about what they have ALL been taught to do.
- Any students who were absent for the training should be required to demonstrate the ability to comply with the safety guidelines before participating in small group cooking activities. This could be completed, just before small group cooking commences, if necessary.
3. Not Negotiable Trangia Safety principles.
Based on my experience and my research conducted for this report, the biggest safety risks associated with small group cooking on Trangias are burns from: spilt hot liquids; and from flare-ups caused by unsafe refueling of the burner. In my opinion, both of these events are foreseeable and must be managed by any schools/organisations using Trangias for small group cooking. There are numerous reports of incidents, both in Australia in the UK, available online (for example see, Henwood, 1999; Smith, 2013). For the incident that occurred in the UK (see Smith, 2013) the local council pleaded guilty to a health and safety breach after a student on a Duke of Edinburgh program was severely burned in a refueling incident using a Trangia stove.
In my research, there were safety principles on which there seems to be common agreement. I think it is reasonable to argue that these are not-negotiable safety principles for the use of Trangia stoves in a small group cooking activity.
- Use a Cooking Circle or semi circle. Don’t allow student access inside this circle. Ensure the circle is 3-4m away from flammable materials like tents. Note: Under certain conditions, my research indicates that cooking in tent vestibules is allowed by some organisations under certain conditions (eg, alpine environments) with additional safety requirements. I have very little experience teaching in alpine environments and can’t comment on these practices.
- Use a flat, stable surface for stoves, cleared of leaves/branches. One research participant who only uses Trangia stoves in a base-camp setting has modified their stoves to make them even more stable.
- Limit students’ movements when small group cooking. Clearly, there may be some reasons why students may need to move somewhere occasionally, but limiting student’s movements reduces the risk of knocking stoves over. In my research, most schools/organisations require students to sit, in order to restrict movement. Dallat (2016) presents an alternate view on squatting vs sitting around stoves.
- No passing things over the stove.
- Stoves are not left unattended when cooking,
- Appoint a designated cook who operates the stove at any one time.
- Close supervision by teachers/leaders is required. My view is that certain safety guidelines make supervision easier than others. The next section illustrates this point.
4. Other safety principles worthy of being non-negotiable
Some other safety principles were identified in my research, but they probably don’t yet have universal agreement – particularly in Queensland. It is my recommendation, based on my research, that they be adopted by all schools and organisations, as key strategies to avoid foreseeable injuries caused by flare-up incidents when refueling. The strategies outlined below provide the safest strategies for refueling and they are the easiest to supervise.
- Establish a refueling station away from the cooking circle
Many schools/organisations already use a refueling station as key safety strategy. In West Australian State Schools this is already a non-negotiable. In Queensland, there is not the same level of agreement or commitment to this strategy.
Section 4.4.1.3 of the West Australian Education Department Outdoor Safety Guidelines (2008), state in the penultimate bullet point of the section: “To ensure safe use of stoves it is recommended that: the stove is filled away from the cooking area” (p. 48). Six of the ten programs surveyed in my research (see Table 1) comply with this recommendation in their Trangia safety management guidelines. All of these organisations require fuel bottles to be stored in a separate location (usually called a refueling station) at least 4 metres away from the cooking circle and away from other flammable items (like tents, backpacks, and groundsheets). An article written by two Perth outdoor educators on Trangia safety management (Mitchell & Langley, 2012) on the WA Outdoors website also recommends this strategy.
When students need to refill their burner the fuel bottle is never carried to the stove, the burner is carried to the refueling station. This requirement ensures that the burner is fully extinguished and cool enough to refill without the risk of flare-up. A methylated spirits flame can be hard to see in daylight hours, but it would be impossible to carry a burner that was still alight to the refueling station, as it would still be too hot to pick up. A burner that was not alight, but still hot enough to cause a flare-up, would also not be able to be carried to the refueling station. I acknowledge that there is a risk of some spillage when placing the burner back into the stove, and that this could also cause flare ups. However, I think the risk is much lower than the flare up that can be caused by incorrectly refueling the burner in the stove.
- Use a safety fuel bottle
Another strategy that is commonly used by schools/organisations to reduce the hazards of flare-ups when refueling the burner is to only use ‘safety fuel bottles.’ A number of outdoor gear companies (including Trangia) make these bottles, they are readily available from most outdoor retail outlets, and they sell for around $30-35. The bottles perform two tasks: they limit the flow of fuel when pouring from the bottle which reduces spillage; and they stop the flow of fuel if the bottle is dropped. They have a special lid on the bottle that will only allow fuel to be poured whilst a button on the top of the lid is depressed. If the student’s finger is taken off the button when refueling, the fuel will no longer flow out of the bottle. This means if a flare-up occurs the flow of fuel, and the corresponding flame, is restricted as soon as the bottle is dropped or thrown away.
Based on my research, I think there is enough agreement on these two strategies across the outdoor education profession to suggest that they should be adopted as non-negotiable Trangia Safety management strategies when conducting small group cooking.
5. Some additional things to consider?
Here’s some other ideas/principles that may be of interest. They were not used by a majority of organisations/schools but warrant further discussion amongst the outdoor education profession.
- Rethink supervision of small group cooking.
It is important to note the challenging task of supervising students on an outdoor education program. In her blog post, Dallat (2016), provided the following comment.
Within technical activities and in other aspects of an outdoor
education program, the supervisory team often has an agreed
approach and facilitates the activity as a team. There is generally
an agreed understanding of roles, boundaries and a combined
approach. Within cooking, this can sometimes be missing. In fact,
the time when cooking dinner occurs is sometimes used as a rest
period for a staff member. It is their ‘time out’. It may also coincide
with scheduled call-in times back to base. Supervision is a key
component in activities that are unfamiliar and where there is the
potential for harm to occur. Consequently, I would argue that
cooking certainly fits this bill and is a time when supervision should
be direct and ‘tight’. If the rest and scheduled call-ins need to wait
till the heat is turned off, so be it. (p. 8)
In a 2012 analysis of outdoor education incidents in New Zealand (Cessford, 2012), the author of the report made the following comment about incidents that occurred during cooking, “These remind us that safety concerns require attention for the whole ofany trip or activity, and not just when people are ‘on-activity’” (p. 22). I concur with Dallat (2016) and Cressford (2012) and would suggest that small group cooking must be risk-managed and supervised like any other outdoor activity. Supervising a small group cooking activity, whilst preparing and eating your own meal, is challenging.
- Conduct thorough safety management assessment and planning.
The potential for injuries in small group cooking, is often understated in risk management planning and this also has been noted by Dallat (2016).
If cooking is represented in risk assessments, it is typically
allocated a one liner in relation to the source of hazard (stoves),
the potential harmful outcome (burns), and the risk controls
(supervise students). It would perhaps be more effective, given the
incident statistics and the potential for serious injury associated
with the activity of cooking, to discuss all the reasonably
foreseeable ways that someone could be injured associated with
cooking, followed by what can be done about it. It would again
treat cooking as an activity and not solely an action. (p. 8)
- Miscellaneous safety principles
Some research participants were passionate about the following, safety guidelines. The merit of each point could be the topic of safety discussions in professional forums for outdoor managers, administrators, and practitioners.
- Students should have closed footwear.
- No cooking on tables due to the risk of spilling hot fluids onto the legs of students sitting at the table. However, one research participant allowed cooking at tables provided students did not sit at the tables whilst cooking.
- Don’t allow students to blow on the flame to try and extinguish the burner.
- No sitting in front of stoves. Dallat (2016) provides an argument for squatting not sitting.
- Use an exchange burner system. Require students to replace their empty (but extinguished) burners with a cool one – although a refueling station (Section 4b) already covers this.
- Leader keeps ignition device.
- Students and staff to keep full water bottles nearby to extinguish flames and cool any burns that may occur.
6. Conclusion: System-wide responsibilities
In line with the message being promoted through the leaders of UPLOADS project (see Dallat, 2016), I agree effective safety management for small group cooking requires a system-wide approach. Trangia safety is not the sole responsibility of the group leader. Based on my research, I suggest the following:
- Program managers/directors/administrators (re)consider how supervision of small group cooking is managed. This could include the staff-student ratios, allocated roles, safety strategies used, and the support provided to group leaders during small group cooking.
- Program managers/directors/administrators provide appropriate fuel safety bottles. They’re not expensive, make refueling easier, and do a good job of limiting flare-ups.
- Engage staff across the whole organization in Trangia Safety training and inservice.
- Engage all staff in the development and maintenance of clear, concise, safety guidelines for small group cooking based on research-informed, best practice. I suspect the usefulness of safety guideline documents may be inversely proportional to their length.
- Facilitate robust discussion about near-misses and accidents within and between organisations/schools/programs. Outdoor education professional bodies may be part of the solution here.
- Consider participating in the UPLOADS process to share information about near-misses and accidents. I don’t think this should substitute for, or replace, point e) above. I think all outdoor educators should be actively involved in the analysis, interpretation, and critique of safety incidents and the formation of best practice. Outdoor educators should not be content to allow ‘professional incident analysts’ to do this important work for us.
- All programs preparing outdoor leaders/teachers for entry into the profession should help their students to recognise, understand, implement and critique safety management practices in small group cooking using Trangia stoves. The analysis of case-studies of past incidents can be an important part of this education process.
7. References
Cessford, G. (2012). National incident database: 2012 report. New Zealand Mountain Safety Council. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 from: http://www.incidentreport.org.nz/resources/NID_Report_2012.pdf
Clacy, A., van Mulken, M., Goode, N., & Salmon, P. (2016). The UPLOADS National Incident Dataset Annual Report: 1st June 2015 to31st May 2016. Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from: https://uploadsproject.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/annual-report-1st-june-2015-to-31st-may-2016.pdf
Dallat, C. (2016). All burnt out: Extinguishing old assumptions around outdoor cooking. UPLOADS Project Blog, posted on April 29. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 from: https://uploadsproject.org/2016/04/29/all-burnt-out-extinguishing-old-assumptions-around-outdoor-cooking/comment-page-1/#comment-387
Henwood, G. (1999). Fuel stoves and their dangers. Newsletter of the Outdoor Educators’ Association of South Australia, 18(3), August. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 from: https://www.bushwalkingleadership.org.au/resource/fuel-stoves-and-their-dangers/
Mitchell, K., & Langley, A. (2012). Ye good old Trangia. Outdoors WA Website. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 from: www.outdoorswa.org/files/Ye%20good%20Old%20Trangia%2001.pdf
Smith, B. (2013). Fine for Newham Council after DofE teen scarred for life in stove fire. Grough Online Magazine. Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from: https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2013/01/30/fine-for-newham-council-after-dofe-teen-scarred-for-life-in-stove-fire
Sutton Duke of Edinburgh. (2017). Use of Trangia Stoves. Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from: www.suttondofe.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Trangia-use.doc
Victorian Government. (2017). Excursion support – Fuel stove guidelines. Melbourne: Education Victoria. Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/health/Pages/outdoorresstove.aspx
West Australia Government. (2008). Outdoor education and recreation activities. Perth, WA: Dept of Education. Retrieved on April 2, 2017 from http://det.wa.edu.au/policies/detcms/policy-planning-and-accountability/policies-framework/policies/outdoor-education-and-recreation-activities.en?bbp.9.policyID=18644617&bbp.s=10&bbp.e=select&bbp.10.pane=7&bbp.v=0&bbp.i=d0.b.1.6.1.4.1.1.1.3.1.1.1.1.1&g11n.enc=UTF-8
[1] http://trangia.se/english/2933.the_company.html