Carbon monoxide: never cook inside a tent, awning or closed van
This is the only page on this site about something that kills people quickly. Everything else here will, at worst, make you very unwell for a day. This one is different, and the reason it keeps happening is not ignorance of the danger — most people know a barbecue indoors is a bad idea. It is that the line between “inside” and “outside” is not where people think it is.
An awning is inside. A porch is inside. A van with the side door open is inside.
The rules
From nidirect’s guidance for camping, caravanning and boating:
never take a smouldering or lit barbecue into a tent, caravan or cabin - even if you have finished cooking
never use a barbecue inside to keep you warm
never leave a lit barbecue unattended or while sleeping
never take a gas stove, light or heater into a tent, caravan or cabin unless it’s a permanent fixture, installed and maintained correctly
Carbon monoxide can build up to levels that can kill very quickly in enclosed spaces, including awnings.
— nidirect, Carbon monoxide dangers if camping, caravanning or boating
Three of those deserve drawing out.
“Even if you have finished cooking.” A barbecue that is no longer flaming is still burning, and incomplete combustion at low temperature produces more carbon monoxide, not less. The cooling barbecue brought into the porch to get it out of the rain is a recurring pattern.
“To keep you warm.” This is the specific thing that kills people. It happens on cold nights, at the end of an evening, to people who are tired and who have been drinking, and it is a decision that looks entirely reasonable at the time. The barbecue is finished with. It is still warm. It is cold in the tent.
“Including awnings.” An awning feels like outdoors — it is fabric, it is not the tent proper, there is a gap at the bottom. It is an enclosed space.
Why you will not notice
Per the NHS:
Carbon monoxide gas is colourless and does not smell, so you cannot tell if it is around you.
There is no warning. Smoke you would notice; this is not smoke. The first indication is the symptoms, and those are:
a headache, dizziness, feeling sick or being sick, feeling weak, tiredness and confusion, chest and muscle pain, shortness of breath
Read that list again and notice what it describes: a long day outdoors. Headache, tiredness, feeling a bit sick and slightly confused is also what a hard walk, too much sun, not enough water and a couple of drinks feels like. In a tent, on a camping trip, the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are indistinguishable from the ordinary state of being on a camping trip.
Tiredness and confusion are the cruel part. The poisoning impairs exactly the judgement you would need to recognise it, and the natural response to feeling tired and unwell in a tent at night is to lie down.
The one reliable tell
symptoms may get worse when you spend time in an affected room or building and get better when you leave or go outside
If a headache lifts when you step out and returns when you go back in, that is the signal. Take it seriously even if everything else seems fine.
What to do
The NHS advice, in order:
stop using appliances you think might be making carbon monoxide
go outside
get medical advice as soon as possible – do not go back into the affected building until you have got advice
Do not go back in for your things.
The scale of it
From the UK Health Security Agency:
Around 20 people die each year in England and Wales from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning, with many more hospitalised.
In England, 68% of carbon monoxide deaths occur in autumn and winter.
That seasonal split is the “keeping warm” mechanism showing up in the statistics. The risk is highest exactly when the temptation is highest.
UKHSA also makes a point that catches people who think they have done the right thing:
CO can even enter tents from a smouldering barbecue outside, so always take an alarm when camping.
Putting the barbecue outside the tent door is not sufficient if it is still smouldering and the wind is wrong. Put it out, and put it well away.
Cooking in a van, properly
None of this means you cannot cook where you sleep. It means the difference between a fitted appliance and a portable one is a real distinction, not a bureaucratic one.
nidirect’s wording is precise: gas stoves and heaters must not come inside “unless it’s a permanent fixture, installed and maintained correctly”, and the appliance must be “in good order, undamaged and that hoses are properly attached and undamaged.”
So, in practice:
- A properly installed campervan hob, fitted and serviced, with the ventilation it was designed with, used with a vent or window open is the intended way to cook inside a van. The ventilation is not optional and is not there for smells.
- A portable camping stove carried inside because it is raining is not the same thing, whatever it is burning. Neither is a portable gas heater.
- Charcoal in any form never comes inside. Not lit, not smouldering, not “nearly out”.
Get a carbon monoxide alarm, take it with you, and put it where you sleep. This site carries affiliate links on kit pages and deliberately carries none here — there is nothing to sell you on this page. Any alarm certified to the current standard will do, and the cheapest one you will actually pack beats the best one left at home.
One more thing
Recipes on this site that involve any enclosed or semi-enclosed cooking situation link here. But the rule does not depend on the recipe: if the flame is inside with you and the appliance was not installed there, stop.