To Build a Fire
Survival can be summed up with the three F’s: Food, Fresh water, and Fire.
Food is plentiful. It walks, crawls, grows and swims, and conveniently comes in freeze dried foil pouches. Fresh water falls from the sky and flows in rivers and creek beds (a light charcoal filter will prevent varmint piss from ruining your day).
Fire lives in the trees.
I used to think in terms of matchbooks, paper and gasoline, but that is a highly inefficient way of starting a fire. Besides being ridiculously heavy, gasoline burns off too quickly from the surface of the wood, and paper provides no embers, and turns instantly into charred layers which can smother a flame (I once used a pint of two-cycle oil on a frozen pile of logs in the remote Smokey mountains and was surprised the rangers didn’t think it an SOS distress signal).
Instead, look for a succession of tiny branches, each slightly larger than the ones gained initially, and pile them to the side of where you intend your fire to be. Don’t build your fire near other dry fuel laying nearby, unless you intend on burning down the entire forest.
Fire doesn’t burn the wood directly, it occurs in the gases emitted from the wood. These gases mix with the oxygen in the air, and that’s where combustion occurs. The amount of energy required to start a fire is dependent upon the mass of fuel, ergo, think small. Tiny shards whittled from a dry stick can be ignited from sparks obtained with a few long strokes on a flat piece of flint with the blunt edge of a Barlow knife.
If the ground is wet, look for evergreens such as cedar or spruce, which will burn in water, especially the cones which contain a flammable resin. If none are available, find a green sapling and cut it lengthwise. You will find dry wood in the center. Then “feather” the center with your knife, and light the ends with your flint. Under these circumstances, you will need plenty of “feathers,” as it will take more heat for the wet branches to catch flame.
A few lightweight resources may be found in a backpack. Forget about expensive fire starters at a camping store. Use a cotton ball (which weighs practically nothing) rolled in Vaseline. It will burn for one minute, providing more than enough heat to ignite a small pile of shavings, and is quite waterproof. It doesn’t hurt to have a few long wooden match sticks in a waterproof case as last resort, but paper matches are as worthless as a chocolate teapot.
As your tiny pile of shavings ignites, gently place the branches, one by one carefully on the flame, keeping in mind that fire travels upward, so tilt the branches slightly so the flame has more surface to climb. Slowly form a teepee with your sticks over the heart of the fire. The trick is to turn the wood into glowing coals. If there is wind, use it to your advantage by arranging your pile of sticks leeward, downwind from the flame, to catch the full brunt of the blowing embers.
A fire will tell you its temperature by the color of it. The hottest flames are blue, followed by white, orange and red. Use the blue and white flames to start new wood.
Carefully arrange larger branches, spaced apart for the greatest use of oxygen. When you have a twelve-inch diameter of red burning coals, lay a four-square of arm-sized branches around it. Then place a decent sized amount of branches just over it, careful not to smother. Protect the flame.
Now sit by it, listen to the crackle and the hiss, light a cigar and warm a flask of sweet bourbon, have a dog beside you, and think of simple things.
“Fire is the most tolerable third party.”
- Henry David Thoreau
