Staying warm in the wilderness is crucial, and knowing how to start a fire is an important skill to have. Not only will it keep you warm, but fires also provide light, give you protection from animals, and help you to cook food. These are all important aspects to consider when in a survival situation.
Choose a Site
- There a few key things to look out for prior to starting a fire. Make sure your chosen site isn’t near any trees, plants, or bushes, to avoid setting them alight. Ideally, your chosen spot should be at least 6 feet away from any plant material.
- A fire should be started on bare ground, rather than on grass or a grassy patch. If this isn’t possible, then you can improvise by raking away any vegetation, and digging up to create a bare site.
- You should ensure that any dry plant material is out of the way before you get to work, as materials such as bark and branches can easily catch fire.
- In order to contain your fire once it is lit, it is advised to build a stone fire ring. This will also help you to mark out where you’re going to start the fire.
- Using rocks and stones that you can find, it should measure around 3-4 feet in diameter to give you enough room to start a decent-sized fire.
Materials
- There are several key materials you will need to get the fire started.
- Several of the techniques we will highlight in this guide will require matches or a lighter, but there are plenty of ways to start a fire without these items.
- However, we would advise carrying a lighter, matches, or a fire-starter in your survival backpack if possible.
Components of a Fire
- Tinder: This consists of the small, lightweight materials to help you start a fire. There are many different forms of tinder that you could easily find, such as strips of cardboard, wood shavings, wax, or wadded paper.
- Kindling: These are medium-sized materials that light easily once in contact with burning tinder. Look at using items such as small twigs and sticks, or large pieces of bark as suitable kindling. Twigs and small branches should ideally be around 1/8 inch and ½ inch in diameter. Anything too big will not light as quickly from tinder. These items should be fully dry, or else they won’t light properly, if at all.
- Wood Logs: These are crucial to keeping the fire burning for long periods, and are essentially the heart of the fire. Without decent fuelwood, it’s unlikely that your fire will burn brightly enough or for a long enough time to keep you sufficiently warm. Fuelwood can vary in size depending on what’s available to you, but each piece should be around 1 inch to 5 inches in diameter. They don’t need to be huge – just substantial enough to keep the fire going. Anything too big will take a while to catch fire, and you’ll be left shivering for longer than you need to be. All the wood you use should be dry, and you can use various sized logs to help increase the flames once the fire is burning.
How-to Start a Fire without Matches
- You can use any friction-based method to start a fire, including the hand drill, fire plough, bow drill, flint and steel, etc. You can also use a lens to start a fire, or batteries and steel wool.
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