How To Make Fire

Making a fire is an important skill for camping or spending time in the wilderness. If you ever find yourself stranded on an island, or lost in the wilderness, it can also be a way to get attention.

If you don't have any matches, you can use a magnifying glass or rubbing some sticks together, or knocking stones together to produce a spark. You need small dry kindling around for it to catch and then slowly add larger and larger twigs and then branches and then logs.

This method is very difficult, so most people at least have matches. If you have matches and gasoline, it's very simple, just douse the wood with gas and throw a match on it. However, if you don't have gasoline, you need to get some dry kindling. This usually consists of very small twigs, pine needles, dry leaves and crumpled newspaper if you have any.

Above the kindling, you want branches in a teepee formation. Smaller branches should form one teepee and larger branches should form a second teepee above that one. Once the kindling lights, it will heat up the branches until they catch fire. Once the branches or very hot, you can start adding some larger branches, and eventually logs. But make sure the fire is raging first, otherwise the logs will smother the fire and put it out.

Don't let the fire get too big. The fire should never be left unattended. Once you are ready to sleep, make sure to douse the fire completely. No embers should be left glowing.