Fire

Outline.

Fire is essential to survival. Fire can fulfill many needs. It can provide warmth and comfort. It not only cooks and preserves food, it also provides warmth in the form of heated food that saves calories our body normally uses to produce body heat. Fire boils water, signal for rescues, and provide protection from animals. You can also use fire to produce tools and weapons. Learning to light a fire anywhere under any conditions can save your life.

Preparation & Site Selection.

You will ahve to decide what site and arrangement to use. Before building a fire consider the following.

The area (terrain and climate) in which you are operating.

The materials and tools available.

Look for a dry spot that have the following.

Adequate ventilation for your fire.

Is suitably placed in relation to your shelter.

Will concentrate the heat in the direction you desire.

Has a supply of wood or other fuel available.

If you are in a wooded or brush-covered area, clear the brush and scrape the surface soil from the spot you have selected. Clear a circle at least 2 meters in diameter so there is little chance of the fire spreading. Do not light a fire at the base of a tree. If the ground is wet or snow covered, build a platform from a layer of green logs covered with a layer of earth, or a layer of stones.

Construct a fire wall using logs or rocks. This wall will help to reflector direct the heat where you want it. It will also reduce flying sparks and cut down on the amount of wind blowing into the fire. However, you will need enough wind to keep the fire burning.

note: Avoid placing wet or porous rocks near fires, especially rocks which have been submerged in water - they may explode when heated, producing dangerous flying fragments which could take out an eye if you are close to the fire. Avoid slates and softer rocks. Test them by banging them togerther and do not use and that crack or sound hollow.

In some situations, you may find that an underground fireplace will best meet your needs. It conceals the fire and serves well for cooking food. To make an underground fireplace or dakota fire hold do the following.

Dig a hole in the ground.

On the upwind side of this hole, poke or dig a large connecting hole for ventilation.

Build you fire in the hole.

If you are in a snow-covered area, use green logs to make a dry base for your fire. Trees with wrist-sized trunks are easily broken in extreme cold. Cut or break several green logs and lay them side by side on top of the snow. Add one or two more layers. Lay the top layer of logs opposite those below it.

Fire Material Selection.

You need three types of materials to build a fire - tinder, kindling, and fuel.

Tinder is dry material that ignites with little heat - a spark starts a fire. The tinder must be absolutely dry to be sure just a spark will ignite it. If you only have a device that generates sparks, charred cloth will be almost essential. It holds a spark for long periods, allowing you to put tinder on the hot area to generate a small flame. You can make charred cloth be heating cotton cloth until it turns black, but does not burn. Once it is black, you must keep it in an airtight container to keep it dry. Prepare this cloth well in advance of any survival situation. Add it to your individual survival kit. Other materials that only take a spark to ignite are birch bark, dried grasses, wood shavings, bird down, waxed paper, cotton fluff, fir cones, pine needles, powdered dried fungi, fine dust produced by wood burrowing insects and the inside of birds' nests.

Kindling

Kindling is the wood used to raise flames from tinder. Small dry twigs, resinous and softer woods are best. This material should be absolutely dry to ensure rapid burning. Kindling increases the fire's temperature so that it will ignite less combustible material. Don't collect kindling from the earth, if the ouside of the kindling is damp, shave until you reach dry wood.

Tip: Make fire sticks, shave sticks with shallow cuts to "feather" them. This will make the wood catch light more quickly.

Fuel.

Fuel is less combustible material that burns slowly and steadily once ignited. Hard woods such as hickory, beech and oak, burn well, and are long lasting, and give off great heat. Soft woods burn fast and give off sparks. Stay away if possible from alder, spruce, pine, chestnut and willow.

Firelighting.

Always light your fire from the upwind side. Make sure to lay your tinder, kingling, and fuel so that your fire will burn as long as you need it. Igniters provide the initial heat required to start the tinder burning.

Matches are the easiest way to start a fire. Carry the non-safety type in waterproof containers, packed so they can't rub, rattle or ignite. Split in half to make them go further. To strike split matches, press inflammable end against the striking surface with a finger. Strick a damp match by stabbing obliquely instead of drawing it along striker strip. If your hair is dry and not too greasy, roll a damp match in it. Static electricity will dry out the match.

Convex Lens.

Use this method only on bright, sunny days. The lens can come from binoculars, camera, telescopic sights, or magnifying glasses. Angle the lens to concentrate the sun's rays on the tinder. Hold the lens over the same spot until the tinder begins to smolder. Gently blow or fan the tinder into flame, and apply it to the fire lay.

Powder from ammunition.

Break open a round and pour gunpowder on tinder, and use flint. Or leave half the powder in cartridge case and stuff piece of cloth into it. Chamber the round and fire into the ground. The smouldering cloth will be ejected. Place on tinder to ignite.

Metal Match.

Place a flat, dry leaf under your tinder with a portion exposed. Place the tip of the metal match on the dry leaf, holding the metal match in one hand and a knife in the other. Scrape your knife against the metal match to produce sparks. The sparks will hit the tinder. When the tinder starts to smolder, Gently blow or fan the tinder into flame, and apply it to the fire lay.

Battery.

Use a battery to generate a spark. Use of this method depends on the type of battery available. Attach a wire to each terminal. Touch the ends of the bare wires together next to the tinder so the sparck will ignite it.

Flint.

A stone found in many parts of the world. Strike with steel and hot sparks fly off. Or use saw-edged blade from survival kit for more sparks.

Fire-Plow.

The fire-plow is a friction method of ignition. You rub a hardwood shaft against a softer wood base. To use this method, cut a straight groove in the base and plow the blunt tip of the shaft up and down the groove. The plowing action of the shaft pushes out small particles of wood fibers. Then, as you apply more pressure on each stroke, the friction ignites the wood particles.

Bow and Drill.

The technique of starting a fire with a bow and drill is simple, but you must exert much effort and be persistent to produce a fire. You need the following items to use this method:

Socket. The socket is an easily grasped stone or piece of hardwood or bone with a slight depression in one side. Use it to hold the drill in place and to apply downward pressure.

Drill. The drill should be straight, seasoned hardwood stick about 2 centimeters in diameter and 25 centimeters long. The top end is round and the low end blunt (to produce more friction).

Fire board. Its size is up to you. A seasoned softwood board about 2.5 centimeters thick and 10 centimeters wide is preferable. Cut a depression about 2 centimeters from the edge on one side of the board. On the underside, make a V-shaped cut from the edge of the board to the depression.

Bow. The bow is a resilient, green stick about 2.5 centimeters in diameter and a string. The type of wood is not important. The bow-string can be any type of cordage. You tie the bowstring from one end of the bow to the other, without any slack.

To use the bow and drill, first prepare the fire lay. Then place a bundle of tinder under the V-shaped cut in the fire board. Place one foot on the fire board. Loop the bowstring over the drill and place the drill in the precut depression on the fire board. Place the socket, held in one hand, on the top of the drill to hold it in position. Press down on the drill and saw the bow back and forth to twirl the drill. One you have established a smooth motion, apply more downward pressure and work the bow faster. This action will grind hot black powder into the tinder, causing a spark to catch. Blow on the tinder until it ignites.