In a survival situation in cold areas, your life could depend on your ability to start and keep a fire. Without going to extremes, you might need fire to get dry, for heating, signaling rescue teams and cooking to eliminate possible parasites and germs in our food.

Also, as hikers, you may feel tempted to sit next to a bonfire under the stars. In this case you should be aware of the laws that regulate these activities in your country.

In any case, you should not forget that fire is very dangerous so you should follow every safety rule:

• Do not make bonfires larger than necessary, they are more difficult to control and maintain.
• Remove twigs and any flammable material within a ratio of two or three feet around the fire.
• Don’t start fires near undergrowth or low lying branches.
• Always have a bucket or water container and/or lush branch to put it out quickly if necessary.

You should always carry a lighter and/or matches in your backpack or luggage in a waterproof container, especially if you are going through inhospitable areas. Your chances of survival will increase by doing this and you will not have to worry about making fire with improvised methods.

Preparing, lighting and keeping the fire

Before anything else you need to decide where you are going to start it, paying attention to the wind and vegetation, and preparing the place by removing branches, weeds, etc.

It is a good idea to dig a hole about 10 or 15 cm deep and surround it with stones to lodge the bonfire in it. When dismantling the camp, you will cover the ashes with the dirt you dug out, return the stones to their place and leave everything as if you were never there.  (This is a good rule to follow whether we make fire or note).

Fueling material: Look for dry branches of different diameters, the thinnest to light it and the thickest to keep it. It will not be hard to find in forest areas and with dry weather. Riverbanks accumulate branches and sometimes turn them into an authentic gold mine. Lower branches are frequently dry and they break easily. If the weather is humid, you need to search the hollow trunks, which provide rotten wood that burns well, in areas sheltered by rocks, roads, caves. If it hasn’t rained too much, you might find dry wood by simply stripping the wet branches. If not, you will have to grab thick branches and cut them lengthwise to make the most of the dry splinters you obtain. You will place the wet wood to dry near the fire.

To start the fire you will use the finer wood at first, which you will arrange in the shape of a teepee or shed with the aid of a rock or log to achieve air circulation and quick ignition.
You will add the thicker wood over the finer wood. If you do not have enough fine wood you can chop the thickest with the aid of your knife.

At the base of the “teepee” or “shed” you will place the “tinder”, which is the flammable material you will light. It will consist of dry grass, pine twigs or needles, and resin. Rotten wood is good tinder during humid weather; it can be easy to strip the bark of the trunks to reach the dry wood inside. Some dry fruits, such as nuts, have an oil that makes them flammable and burn slowly.

Birch bark cut in strips is especially useful, since it lights up quickly, and burns slowly and with a good flame. You can even make an improvised torch by rolling a strip of bark in a rod.

In places with no wood, man turns to other types of fuel. Camel droppings are used in deserts; and in polar areas, seal fat and other materials.
 

Fire in Teepee	Fire in Shed

Types of wood

Not all wood burns equally, emit the same heat and flames or form lasting embers. Each type of wood has its own characteristics. Alan Sauri describes in his book “The Self-sufficient Life – Ed. Blume” the characteristics of the most common tree woods.