Fire

I'm sure we all have great memories around a fire; whether in our homes, at the beach, or on a camping trip. In a survival situation, fire can be a top priority. But what makes a good fire?

Fire requires three things to survive: Fuel, Oxygen, and an Ignition source.

Fuel

Fuel typically consists of: Tinder, Kindling, Fuelwood. Since oxygen is crucial to a fire, dense material takes longer to light, however it will also burn for a longer period of time. Tinder is typically not dense and therefore will light quickly, but burn quickly as well. Kindling is an intermediary.

Think of it like a three stage rocket. The tinder is ignited first and as it burns it exposes the kindling to the flame. If you have enough tinder to expose the kindling to fire, for a long enough time period, then the kindling will ignite and expose the fuelwood to the flame. The cycle is then continued and the fuelwood is ignited. From there the fire can be maintained by adding more fuelwood.

Accelerates are often used on fires (i.e. gasoline, lighter fluid, etc.). These act similar to tinder and are meant to aid in progression through each stage.

Oxygen

The fire's ability to breathe is important to consider in both building a fire and putting out a fire. The amount of oxygen the fire is exposed to will determine the rate at which your fire burns. Densely packed fires will burn more slowly. Fires that are spread out will burn quickly. Fires that are deprived of oxygen will be extinguished.

When building a fire, it is important to find a good balance of keeping your fuel compact so that the flame can propagate while allowing ample oxygen to reach the flames. [This is the principle behind the log cabin and tepee style log configurations that are used to build fires.]

Ignition Source

The ignition source is the catalyst that forces the fuel and oxygen to interact with each other to form fire. In its most basic form the ignition source introduces intense heat into the equation and makes the fuel unstable, which in turn causes it to react with the oxygen around it.

The ignition source is often the most difficult part of a fire to come by. This is also very easy to remedy. My recommendation is to always have at least two methods for starting a fire in your camping, hiking, or backpacking gear. I prefer a lighter and a magnesium or ferrocerium fire starter. A lighter can easily start hundreds of fires and can even be used without fuel (with the proper tinder). A fire starter will start thousands of fires and is pretty much impervious to the elements.

Remember to always enjoy your fires in the proper place and with some way of extinguishing it.