Tue | May 19, 2026

Art of coal burning lives on

Published:Wednesday | October 20, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Pause
Leighton Livingston checks to make sure that the wood is tightly packed to reduce the risk of the kiln catching fire and burning out the coal. - Photos by Christopher Serju
Stanford (left) and Ever struggle with a bag packed with driftwood collected at Farquahar Beach. Stanford explained that the wood is excellent for making bonfires to keep at bay the many mosquitoes plaguing the community since the heavy rains.
Leighton Livingston does an audit of his work to ensure that all is well before going further.
1
2
3

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

WATCHING him pack the coal kiln, you realise it's very hard work, but just how he knows where and how to place the different pieces of wood is puzzling. Talking to him, you realise that it is a technical process, requiring much know-how - garnered over many years of working alongside his father.

Preparing to burn coal in an area known as Farquahar Beach in Clarendon is 39-year-old sometime-fisherman Leighton Livingston, more popularly known as 'Eighteen', who often falls back on this skill to supplement his income.

He explains in part the strategy: "You have to tie it up good because the fire will come out and blaze and burst it open and burn it up. When you look, man, is only fire you see, you have to deal with it proper."

If done properly, a kiln such as the one we watched being packed can take as much as five days to burn out, and even if it rains will not be affected. After the wood is packed, it will be covered with bush and then a layer of dirt which provides the protective covering. The bush will serve as an accelerant, but again, Livingston warns, it is better to take time in getting the process right, since being hasty could prove costly.

Process

At the start of the building process, trash is strategically placed at the centre of the kiln, with an opening at left - through which it will be lit. According to Livingston, the fire will then 'walk' from the inside to the top of the kiln where it ignites the bush covered by the dirt and then burns outward until the wood is transformed to coal.

Using the smoke as a guide, he is able to monitor and know when the process is completed. But the job is far from over. It is then that he must be especially vigilant.

"If you leave it too long now, the fire turns back up into the coal and melt them."

With all the hard work associated with coal burning, Livingston is grateful to his father for the time spent passing on this skill which, in addition to being a source of income, has kept him out of trouble.

"Because the time is rough you have to hustle, so I do a little fishing every now and then. But the coal-making is what I born seeing my father doing. And so I don't have to take up the tool that get you into trouble with the law," says Livingston.