Basic Firelighting

Introduction

Background

• Fuel

  The most common fuel used by scouts is wood, either as logs cut from trees or more commonly scrap wood from broken pallettes.

• Heat

  Heat from the smaller fuel should ignite the next size up which should be arranged around it. The best way to learn this is to practice starting fires using just Tinder and Kindling.

• Air

  All surfaces that are trying to burn need oxygen, make sure that the fire is kept loosely packed to allow in as much air as possible.

Fuel

• Tinder anything small that burns well like very small dry twigs, paper, fluff from your pockets, fine strips of silver birch bark, bandage, cotton wool and so on. This is what you actually set fire to and it will have to generate enough heat to set your kindling on fire. You will need a loose bundle that would over fill a large mug.
• Kindling is the next size up, it needs to burn long enough and hot enough to set fire to the fuel around it.
  Collect enough to fill a baseball cap, and you can use twigs between the size of a pencil and a twix bar or larger wood that has been split down.
• Main Fuel is the main wood for the fire. The thicker the wood the longer it will take to catch fire but once burning will last longer.
  How much you collect will depend on the type of fire you are building, and these are covered in the following sections.

Location

One of the first decisions in making a fire is where to put it and what needs to be done to make sure that it will work properly.

• Don't build a fire so close to your camp that stray sparks can set fire to the tents.
• Cooking fires need to be next to your kitchen area
• Don't light the fire too near or under overhanging branches. The heat can damage the leaves and the smoke can kill any animals or birds living in them.
• Don't leave signs behind or risk setting fire to the surrounding country, clear the site before you start and again when you have finished. No one should be able to tell that you have been there.
• If there is grass on the ground then cut it out, as shown in the panel on the right of this sheet.
• Be especially careful if you build your fire on peat - once it catches fire it can be very hard to put out.

Construction

• Place your tinder in a small pile in the middle of the fireplace and build the kindling around it, making sure that you do not pack it too tight, as the fire will need oxygen to burn well.
• Make sure that you have plenty of kindling available, so that you can add more as the fire becomes established.
• If there is a strong wind, shelter the fire before you try to light it.
• Set fire to the tinder and gently blow on it until the kindling starts to burn
• Once the kindling starts to burn gradually add more until it burning nicely
• Gradually add the fuel into the shape that you want. Don't rush this stage and make sure that the wood you are adding is less than twice the size of that which is already alight.
• Never throw wood onto a fire, always place it carefully.

Wet Ground

• If the ground is damp or wet then build the fire on a platform of logs, thick sticks or flat stones.
• This even works if you need to light a fire in a puddle.
• If it is raining hard, you may need to build a shelter over the fire but make sure that both this and the platform are made of green, and not old, dry wood.
• Even if you use a platform you still need to remove the turf as it will eventually burn though.

Log Platform

Rock Platform