Fire Starting

SAFETY FIRST

• Never leave a fire unattended.
• Keep a bucket of water, sand, or a shovel nearby.
• Store extra firewood upwind and away from the fire.

Step 1: Choose a Safe Location

•  Use a designated fire ring or pit if available.
•  Clear at least a 10-foot radius around the fire site — remove leaves, twigs, and anything flammable.
• Avoid building fires under low-hanging branches or near tents and gear.

Step 2: Gather Your Materials

You’ll need three types of fuel:

• Tinder: Easy-to-light material that catches fire quickly (dry leaves, pine needles, dryer lint, cotton balls with petroleum jelly).
• Kindling: Small sticks or twigs (pencil to thumb thickness).
• Fuel wood: Larger logs or split wood that will sustain the fire.

Best practice: Gather 2–3x more wood than you think you'll need. Fires burn through fuel faster than expected.

Step 3: Build your fire structure

Choose one of these proven shapes:

• Teepee: Great for fast ignition.
  • Place tinder in the center.
  • Lean kindling sticks around the tinder like a cone.
  • Add larger wood in a wider teepee shape around that.
• Log Cabin: Best for longer burns.
  • Build a small teepee of tinder/kindling.
  • Stack larger logs in a square pattern around the teepee, like Lincoln Logs.
• Lean-to: Ideal in windy conditions.
  • Drive a stick into the ground at an angle over your tinder.
  • Lean kindling against it to shelter the flame.

 Step 4: Light the Tinder

•  Use a lighter, match, or ferro rod to ignite the tinder.
•  Shield the flame from wind with your body or hand.
•  Once the tinder catches, gently blow at the base to feed oxygen — this helps the kindling ignite.

Step 5: Tend the Fire

• Add more kindling as flames grow, then progressively larger wood.
• Don’t smother the fire - allow room for airflow.
• Keep tools (like a fire poker or stick) nearby to manage the structure.

Step 6: Put It Out Completely

When you're done:

•     Drown the fire with water - every ember, not just the flames.
•     Stir the ashes with a stick or shovel.
•     Repeat until it's cool to the touch.

•  Cotton ball, soot/ash, and wood friction: This method involves embedding ash in a cotton ball and then using friction between two pieces of wood to create an ember.

• Steel wool and a 9-volt battery: Placing steel wool across the terminals of a 9-volt battery will cause it to ignite. Other standard batteries usually require multiple batteries to achieve the same result.

• Flint and steel: Striking steel against flint (or a ferro rod) produces sparks that can ignite tinder such as cotton balls, steel wool, or jute. Different types of flint and steel devices exist, including those with magnesium strips.

• Fire plough: This primitive technique involves rubbing a stick in a groove on a piece of dry wood to generate an ember. It requires very dry deadwood and can be physically demanding 

• Hammer and steel: Repeatedly striking a cold piece of steel or wrought iron on a hard surface like an anvil until it becomes red hot can be used to ignite tinder 

• Focusing sunlight: Using a reflector from a flashlight to focus the sun's rays onto tinder like char cloth can create an ember. Other methods of focusing sunlight include using magnifying glasses, ice, bags of water, or polished aluminum cans