People also make outdoor fires to cook food in barbecues and over campfires. Today, many people enjoy sitting around a campfire, keeping warm and telling stories, just as people have for tens of thousands of years. Industries use fire to manufacture products and dispose of waste. Companies use heating and drying appliances similar to, but often much larger than, the ones in homes. Large industrial incinerators destroy garbage, including household, medical, and industrial waste.
Fire can render toxic waste harmless when it burns such waste in special incinerators.
This waste often cannot be destroyed in any other way. Fires also heat large boilers to generate steam, which then powers large turbines. These turbines generate electricity that provides power and heat to industries and homes. Large power plants may generate electricity using fuels such as coal, gas, and even wood or garbage to create fires. People use fire as a weapon in times of war.