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How to light and build a fire

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Saturday 29th December, 2012

I was thinking about Sudesh's page yesterday and perhaps the most important survival skill of all, is being able to light and build a fire. There are basically two sorts of fires, one is for cooking and the other for warmth. There is something very grounding in a campfire, most years I have a hundred or more (there is a campfire at Latohegy, almost every night!) and some years over 300.

The first and most important thing is to find good wood for burning. Hardwood is best; beech and black locust are my two most used hard woods. Pine burns very quickly and willow is terrible to both collect and burn. When willow is all that is available, then you need lots of it!

Wood that is dry is going to be infinitely better than wood that is still green, or water-sodden. You can burn both, but you need to get the fire burning first. The trick to finding good wood for burning is to look up! Look for dead trees that are still standing, and knock them over. You can also collect dead willow this way too, but the wood breaks with such violence that you have to take care not to injure yourself. For a fire that will burn well into the night collect tree stumps and roots.

Wood that is wet on the outside, but dry on the inside is no problem. Sun-bleached wood from river banks and drift wood trapped in branches is perfect for burning and easy to collect. Carrying the stuff back to camp is part of the evening's entertainment, especially if there is a bunch of you wearing headlamps.

Once collected, break and sort into several piles, twigs that can go straight towards the starting, medium size bits that can be broken to 2-3 feet long, and bits that are two big to break. Pieces to arm thickness can usually be broken by holding one end and stamping on the middle. It's best to break it all up at the beginning.

So to starting the fire itself, carrying a firestarter will certainly make things simpler. If you don't have one, you're going to need dry kindling, and quite a lot of it, or else look through your pack for bits of paper and plastic. A scrunched up plastic bag will work well, and we've lit fires in torrential rain with one of these. I have never lit a fire without the use of matches or a lighter - OK I used a magnifying glass as a kid once, but that's not the same thing at all. If you don't have a lighter or matches then good luck!

Choose your fireplace carefully. You don't want to start a forest fire, and remember the wind can change. I've never lost a fire in twenty years, but a couple of times I've certainly been worried. Once when the wind changed 180 degrees and we were using a bush as a windbreak and the other when I first cleared Latohegy and nearly burned the place down! I always try to choose an existing fire place if there is one, there is nothing worse than numerous fire pits, and one that is free of broken glass - what the hell is that about?

With a firestarter you can just light the thing and then start to place small bits of wood over the top. I lay them length-wise, placing them down, with larger ones on top. Many people think that the sticks need lots of gaps for oxygen, when in fact you're better off trying to smother the fire with too much wood, forcing the fire to start slowly. If it burns too quickly it can actually run out of kindling and the fire will go out before the larger pieces catch.

For cooking it's best to pull burning coals out using sticks, or a shovel, and place the pot directly on these. For cooking fires only, it's good practise to make them only as large as absolutely necessary (and is actually a more difficult and skilled fire to make). Start those by forming a Teepee, which can be knocked over once it's burning.

I find guys who feel compelled to poke the fire with a stick and walk around it continually, all night, extremely annoying! Much better to put a stack of wood on the fire, and lay it in such a way that there are few gaps for oxygen. This was you can sit back for hours enjoying long slow burns instead of a hot, cold, hot, cold with the associated constant moving towards and backwards from the fire!

I don't think there is a finer sleep than sleeping next to an open campfire, beneath the stars, following a great day's fishing! OK maybe with a woman...

Cheers,
Paul

PS Akos on Strike tomorrow, Lars on Monday! Have a great weekend :)


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