When the chips are down and things get crazy, a warm, crackling fire can make the difference between being cold and miserable and being safe, warm, and comfortable. A fire is more than warmth, when you gather around its pulsating orange tendrils; it offers an almost primordial sense of security.
Having said that, in any given situation, the first question that needs asking is if you should light a fire at all. If you are warm and dry, and just need to boil water for cooking, using a camp stove is cleaner, faster, and won’t leave you smelling like smoke. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I lit a fire in the backcountry when out alone or with a single hiking companion. But when you need a fire, either in a survival situation or for a large group, the why and how of fire building is a skill you need to have.
To get a fire going, you need dry tinder and kindling. This can be a challenge when the world is wet, and the wood sodden. The easiest solution is to always have some firestarter in your emergency kit. Vaseline coated cotton balls, paraffin and dryer lint, Fuel tablets, or packaged firestarter like Instafire ®, all will give a reliable flame, and long enough to dry out damp wood and get your fire going. Toilet paper drenched in hand sanitizer has also worked well for me.
In the absence of a good firestarter, you need to be on the lookout through the day for dry tinder and kindling that you can tuck away into a plastic bag. Dry grass, sappy pine cones and pine needles, cattail fluff, the smaller and drier the better, and while you shouldn’t need a lot, it never hurts to have more than you think you will need.
When you need to light your fire, don’t make this too complicated. A generous pile of your tinder/firestarter, topped by a small teepee of very small sticks, either whole or split from a larger piece of wood. For purposes of this article, I will presuppose you have either matches or a lighter. Starting a fire without either is a subject for another day. Assuming you have dry matches, butane lighter, or at least a magnesium stick, be sure to start your fire at the bottom of the pile. If you have done your job of keeping the tinder dry right, it should flare right up. As soon as the small kindling wood starts burning, start adding a few more larger sticks, always leaving enough space for air to get in between.
You don’t need a big fire. All you will do is burn more fuel, which will mean you have to leave to fire to go find more. Cuddle close to your small fire and enjoy the warmth.
It is important, once you have your fire going, to structure it to suit your purpose. Is it solely to keep you warm, or are you doing some cooking over it?
For a cooking fire, be sure to position the fire between either two large pieces of wood, or two somewhat flat rocks of the same height. This will both direct the heat upward and give you a platform to place your pot on. For warmth, a reflector makes your fire more effective. The simple way to do this is to build your campfire next to a large rock or boulder, which will both direct the heat from the side of the fire opposite you back towards you, and (bonus!), pull the smoke up along the rock and away from you. If no boulders are handy, you can rig a reflector by driving two or three sturdy sticks into the ground at about a 45 degree angle several inches from your fire, and stacking several large pieces of wood on the stakes, just far enough away that they don’t catch on fire themselves.
Hopefully, all your campfires are for singing and telling ghost stories around. But if you are ever in a pinch, the ability to make and sustain a fire can be the difference between something interesting to tell your friends about and well, let’s not contemplate the other possibility. Just be sure this is a talent you learn and practice.
