Lesson 14 Fire 1.1 Fire 101
The ability to make fire in an emergency can make the difference between life and death. As survival skills go this one might be the top of the list. When you are lost and away from the safety of your home a fire not only makes your body warm but it also helps to calm your mind. Fires can keep away attackers, from large mammals to mosquitos while keeping the boogy man at bay as well.
Now, most people have made a fire or two in their lives, but don't take this critical skill for granted because when you really need fire- failure may not be an option.
To learn this skill properly we have to strip it down to how it works. Go back to the very basics and build from there. To start with you need to remember that water is the opposite of fire and will be the enemy when you are trying to start one. Water can be rain that is falling or that has fallen as well as just high humidity in the air. If you try to start a fire early in the morning or late in the day after the sun has gone down you are going to have to deal with the dew(the humidity from the air depositing on the hard surfaces as the temperature changes). Again, water is the enemy to fire.
With water in mind you next need to look at where you plan to construct your fire. Remember water and select a dry place that is going to block the wind but still allow air to move into the fire. Air is a companion element to fire as is wood. When you have selected a spot that is away from water you need to think like air and make sure that you know how you are getting into the fire as well as out. If you try building your fire in the bottom of a metal bucket there will be no place for the air to get in and the fire will struggle and eventually fail. By thinking like air you would know to make some holes in the bottom of the bucket to let the air to come in so the heated air from the fire can rise out of the top withou trying to compete with the air trying to get back into the fire to fuel it.
So first: Keep your fire away from water and build it in a part of day that it would be affected by dew and humidity if possible. Second: Understand how air is going to get to your fire and how the smoke and gases will escape. This brings us to the next part of the system and that is the fuel.
Fuel: When we talk about fuel for a fire it is commonly broken down into three catagories; Tinder, Kindling and Wood or Fuel. The difference between these is in how fast they will catch fire and how long they will stay burning once they are on fire.
This is determined by three key caracteristics;
1. The amount of surface area on the fuel type you are trying to burn.
2. The mass of the item which will determine how fast you can heat it up to a temperature suitable for burning.
3. The chemical compostion of the item and how flammable it is.
The amount of surface area of a piece of wood can be increased by splitting it in half or even by crushing it. The surface area of a piece of paper is increased by crumpling it up. (with this I am refering to the amount of surface area that is able to be exposed to a small flame at once). When you take big pieces of wood and you split them down into smaller pieces of wood they burn better. If you could split them all the way down to pieces that are as thin as a piece of hair and then cut them up into small pieces so it looked like pepper it would catch fire really fast. You could almost start the fire by thinking about it. But the fire will burn out very fast. This is why you need to add pieces that you haven't split down so much next and not full size pieces yet. You need your next fuel type to be able to be started by the first. It needs to be able to catch and sustain fire in the amount of time that the very small pieces will provide. If you haven't figured it out yet- the pepper pieces are the tinder and the small pieces that you add to this is the kindling.
The kindling pieces of a fire should be small enough to be able to catch fire in the time provided by the tinder but should be able to create coal the will keep burning long enough for larger pieces of wood to catch. When you are just starting out building fires it is helpful to over prepare by collecting more tinder and kindling than you need. As a rule to remember you should have enough tinder to fill a one gallon bucket (think of a paint can) and enough kindling to fill a five gallon bucket. The amount of fuel you have beyond that is based on how long you want the fire to go.
The chemical composition is important when you are using non-wood sources for your fire. Most things will burn but the temperature that they will burn is different which may make your fire hard to control. It is also important to know that the smoke coming off these items will probably be toxic and the smell may travel farther than a conventional fire. In general it is best to avoid burning things other than natural sources but if you need to use something to help get your fire started in a true life or death survival situation just use extreme caution because toxic fumes can kill you faster than the cold will.
I am not going to discuss at this point all of the natural items that are out there to make a fire with. I want you to look for yourself and find the items that fit the discription of tinder, kindling and fuel and to collect them from where you live and practice. Remember that you can increase surface area by tearing up the fibers of grass of wood that you have found. You may also split larger pieces of wood into small pieces. Keep in mind about water and in live plants and trees the water is inside so select dead items that are off the ground and dried by the wind and the sun. Build you fire in the middle of the day to have the best chance of success and build it off the ground and away from water.
I will list a few commonly occurring mistakes that people make when starting fires.
- They build a fire without enough tinder for the kindling to catch
- They collect their tinder too late in the day and the dew is already settling on it
- They build a very nice fire ring but forget to think like air and they struggle to keep the fire going
- They use accelerants to start the fire, like gasoline or lighter fluid, and think that it replaces kindling. It may replace the tinder but it burns out way before it catches the wood or main fuel of the fire.
If you remember these basic things about fire you will know the answer to why you have success or why you don't have success in fire building and that is the best lesson you can have.
Continue on to Lesson 15
Start at the beginning Lesson 1
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