How To Build And Light A Fire

Step 1: You will need

Step 2: Choosing your location

You must think carefully when choosing a location for your campfire, ideally you want an area of flat ground, with enough room for you to set up your camp around the fire. Next brush away all the leaves and twigs on the ground until you are left with a clear space of earth.

Step 3: Materials

To get a good hearty fire going you will need three essential materials; tinder, kindling and fuel.

Tinder is defined as any kind of material that takes the minimum amount of heat to catch alight; dried grasses, fine wood shaving and cotton fluff from clothing all make good tinder. Whatever tinder you use, it must be dry, if you find a good source of tinder it is useful to carry it with you in a waterproof container.

Kindling is defined as the wood used to raise the flames from the tinder so that larger bits of wood can be burned and more heat is created. The best kindling consists of small dry twigs, never collect your kindling from the ground as it will almost certainly be damp. The best source is from standing deadwood- upright trees that have died outside the camp.

Fuel is defined as larger pieces of dry wood. Again it is better to take this from standing trees rather than the ground. Once the fire is well established you can then use greener and damper wood.

To get your fire to light quicker make fire sticks out of your kindling. With your knife, make shallow cuts all the way down the length of your kindling, when you place this prepared kindling on your tinder you will get your fire going much more easily.

Step 4: Fire lighting

There are many different ways of lighting a campfire. Before you start make sure you have all the materials you need around you, as once you start there won't be time to run off and get more dry wood.

First the match method; Make a bed of tinder on the ground, then take your matches and light the tinder. Always use non safety matches, as they can be struck alight from nearly anything. It is very important to be attentive to your fire at this stage, as the tinder can be blown out very easily. In a strong wind, you may want to lean your kindling against a larger log, to block the flame from the wind. Once the kindling has caught then slowly add larger sticks. Another method of fire lighting is using a fire steel. This is a modern alternative to vigorously striking a piece of flint with steel. You should have all your material ready to go. Once a spark catches the tinder, blow lightly on it until you have a strong flame, then you can add your kindling and fuel.


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Step 5: Clearing up

When you have finished with your fire, you must always clear up behind you. Douse the flames with water and make sure all the embers are completely out and there is no chance of it reigniting. Once you are happy that the fire is safety out spread the leaves and twigs you removed from the space originally.