best practice for putting out the fire in the rocket stove when done?

Is this covered in any videos or anything? I don't want to put water in there, but I don't really want to leave the wood burning either and it seems to keep flaming for quite a while after I put bricks over the inlet and chimney because I don't have a perfect seal (they're patio bricks with a funny bump on them).  (Yes I can see through the crack, there are still flames in there...and yeah maybe I haven't quite built anything around the ceramic fiber board yet...

Is there some completely different approach for putting out the fire I should know about?  

My understanding is that they should be allowed to burn out completely, and the air supply closed after that to stop the mass continuing to draw warm air out from the room.

Others may have different views.

if your stove isn't too big the sticks you use should not be too long, what I would do is get a decently deep aluminum bucket/trash can, and when you want to "put out the fire" just grab the sticks and pull them out while they are on fire and have some water in the bottom of your aluminum pail, if the flame isn't too big when you pull the sticks out you can almost blow it out (not always) but if you were to either "dip" the burnt parts in it would immediately extinguish the fire, or you could just drop them in said pail without water (pail should be outside when you do so) and just let the wood sputter out or burn out inside that pail (obv pail shouldn't be expensive)

Hi Josh;    In the event that a rocket stove needs put out quickly then sand is the fast safe answer.
Never use water, and really just letting it go out is standard practice.
Ryan's suggestion to pull out the wood you can reach and dip in a pail of water would do the job as well.
If your rocket is up to temp and you let water in the feed tube, your split bricks will crack.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Josh;    In the event that a rocket stove needs put out quickly then sand is the fast safe answer.
Never use water, and really just letting it go out is standard practice.
Ryan's suggestion to pull out the wood you can reach and dip in a pail of water would do the job as well.
If your rocket is up to temp and you let water in the feed tube, your split bricks will crack.

Dipping in a pail of sand sounds like my solution--thanks!

The best solution I think is to watch your fire and time the size and quantity of sticks so there is not much left when you are done, and let it burn out. Putting out burning sticks is likely to cause quite a bit of smoke as you pull them from the feed even if you have good tongs to grab with. You don't want to put them out while in the feed except in emergency, as water is dangerous and sand is a pain to remove later.