There are a lot of different survival skills a person needs to know in order to make through a life or death situation, especially if you are lost out in the wilderness. However, one that’s near the top of the list is how to build a fire. Camp fires will keep you warm when the chill of the night sets in, along with providing you a way to cook food, boil water to make it safe to drink, and keep away predators while you’re trying to sleep.
A recent article from the folks at SHTF Preparedness discuss several different kinds of fires and how you build them so you can keep yourself or loved ones safe and warm in an emergency situation.
Teepee Fire
First up is the teepee fire. This is probably the kind of camp fire most people are familiar with as they are easily recognizable due to their structure. The cone shape allows the fire to breathe which aids in quick lighting of fuel wood and enables heat to radiate outward toward this sitting around it, making it a great fire for staying warm. Over time the teepee structure will collapse, creating a bed of coals that allows for you to easily lay or stack wood on it to keep it going throughout the night.
Here’s how you build it:
- Place your bundle of tinder in a small pile on the ground.
- To form a teepee point, stake seven to eight pieces of kindling in the soil around your tinder.
- Lay the kindling into a layer on the downwind side of the kindling you previously stuck in the ground. Leave the upwind side of the fire open for lighting the tinder and airflow.
- Keep adding sticks around the outside to form the tepee, but make sure to leave the upwind side open.
- Place smaller fuel wood pieces outside of the teepee.
- Keep adding sticks around the outside to form the tepee, but make sure to leave the upwind side open.
- Place smaller fuel wood pieces outside of the teepee.
- Light the tinder bundle inside the teepee.
- To sustain the fire, add fuel wood to the exterior in a log cabin or crisscross pattern once the starter wood burns down to coals.
Log Cabin Fire
This structure burns very hot, features really good airflow, and helps to heat a large area. Why do they call it a log cabin fire? The way it’s built. When you do it correctly it looks kind of like a log cabin. I know, I know. Pretty obvious. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one.
In fact, the way this fire is built is very similar to how actual log cabins are made. The logs of wood are stacked and interconnected with each other. The fire can then breathe easily and create a lot of heat while also maintaining a significant amount of fuel to burn.
Another perk is that a log cabin fire utilizes vertical space for stacking wood, which gives it more room than traditional structures. In other words, it’ll save you time since you won’t have to toss logs on it to keep it burning as much.
How to build:
- Lay two large pieces of fuel wood on the ground, parallel to the wind direction.
- On the ground, place a bundle of tinder and kindling between the fuel logs.
- Build two to three layers of fuel wood criss-crossing each other on top of the two bottom fuel logs.
- Continue building perpendicular layers using larger fuels first, then move to smaller fuels to finish.
- When it becomes a few feet tall or you run out of wood, complete the structure. If you run out of wood, I’d recommend you gather plenty more before lighting the fire to maintain it.
- Light the tinder on the log cabin’s bottom and wait for the fire to start burning.
- As the original wood burns to coals, place wood around the fire or lay wood across it to maintain it.
Lean-To Fire Lay
If time is of the essence, this is the perfect build. You can get this bad boy up and burning within a minute or so. It’s especially handy if you’re quickly running out of daylight after getting a little too far away from the trail.
One of the best methods of building this kind of fire is to use a large log as the fuel source you lay the other materials on. The log will act as your wind barrier depending on the direction you’re building it. In order to ensure that the fire can breathe, make it parallel to the direction the wind is blowing.
A lean-to fire lay is really nice for cooking a quick meal too.
How to build:
- Lay a large fuel log on the ground, parallel to the wind direction.
- Put a tinder nest next to the log on the side closest to your camp.
- Lean kindling sticks are perpendicular across the log to the ground, leaving the sides open for the wind to travel through.
- Place the larger fuel wood on top of the kindling to ensure the fire is complete.
- Light the tinder inside and wait for the fire to catch.
- Lay more fuel wood across the fire as necessary, using a new log for a lean-to-lay once the primary fuel log burns.
- If you wish to cook over the lean-to-lay fire, place a pot or pan on a flat section of the fuel log parallel to the wind direction.
Star Fire
Last, but certainly not least, we have the star fire, or Indian fire as it’s also known. This build gets its name from how the fuel logs make a “star” shape on the ground, which sort of look like the spokes of a wheel off an old covered wagon. The open ring in the middle is where you stuff your kindling and tinder.
A lot of perks come with the star fire. It’s perfect for hanging a pot over to make a tasty meal. Star fires are also very quick to set up and add wood to through out the night. Just keep pushing additional fuel logs into the middle of the ground. Logs eventually burn down to a bed of hot coals in the middle that will keep the campsite warm.
How to build:
- To form an open center ring, arrange six to ten fuel logs touching ends together in a wheel-spoke formation.
- Place a tinder bundle and kindling in the center ring.
- To start the fire, light the kindling in the middle.
- As the fuel logs burn, push them further into the center to build a bed of coals.
- Add extra fuel logs and push them into the fire’s center as needed.
- If you wish to cook over the star fire, place a pot or pan over the center ring of the fire to easily cook a hot meal.
These four fires will help you quickly create a safe, warm area in the middle of an emergency so you can regroup, gather your thoughts, and make a plan for getting to a more permanent safe location.
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