I recently encountered a small area where there had been a brush fire (could have occurred long ago). I was able to crumble off the outer inch of blackened tree

I recently encountered a small area where there had been a brush fire (could have occurred long ago). I was able to crumble off the outer inch of blackened tree branch stubs and the charcoal seemed fairly consistent. I would have to burn it to test how thoroughly it had been cooked - good charcoal does not give off much smoke because the heat burns away most everything but the carbon. Charcoal for water filtering, cooking, and smelting is probably very abundant in the Pacific Northwest right now....