How to start and create a fire.
-
First off it is important that you try to start your fire
with dry wood. If you try to start it with we wood it is very difficult
to start.
-
Build a pit area where it is not around anything that could
burn and cause a forest fire. It should also be protected from weather
conditions.
-
The first step to starting a fire is to gather the wood.
make sure that you get a few small pieces of wood (moss, twigs, leaves)
for kindling and bigger pieces of wood (branches, logs) to sustain the
fire. The kindling should be dry wood. You can find dry kindling
under branches, covered areas and stumps. Even on wet days you can
still find dry pieces.
-
Find three different sizes of wood before starting the fire.
You will want small twigs, mosses, medium size sticks, bark and finally
your larger branches to keep the fire going. You do not want to put
too much wood on all at once, otherwise you will smother your fire.
It needs oxygen. The next part is to have put together the wood in the
fire pit.
There are many different ways of making the fire.
-
Teepee: This is where all of the wood goes
up in the air making a triangular shape. All of the pieces of wood
connect in the middle and fan out to the sides all around. You want
to make sure to leave room for air.
-
Log
Cabin: Set up logs in a square and alternate them so that
they go one on top of the other in a rotating system.
To start a fire you need to light the small dry tinder.
As soon as you have gotten that started, start adding on wood. make
sure that it gets enough air so that you do not smother it. There
are many things you can try to do to start the fire with. Matches
are usually the easiest. There is also a flint and steel lighter
where you rub the steel against the flint causing flint chunks and
some sparks to fly off. This will help ignite the fire quickly.
Another way to start the fire would be by optical.
You can use glasses or a magnifying glass to try and intensify and reflect
the suns rays against the dry materials to start the fire. You must
have dry materials and the sun though to make this work easily.
Return to lesson 3
Return to Task Cards
Return to Wilderness Page