It is important to explore the surroundings and determine if the location is good to start a fire there. If the area is too open and exposed to wind, your fire might be hard to maintain.
Also, you should check the weather and the ground. If it is wet, you might face difficulties starting a fire. Rain is also not welcome in this situation, so try to find a good and dry location to build a fire.
If you have not built a fire before, here is what should you do before starting a fire.
What Should You Do Before Starting a Fire?
To begin, you should prepare your backpack with all the survival tools and kits you might need while in the wild. Fire kits are always essential, whether you go camping or hiking in an unknown area.
You have to find a dry spot to place the wood and build a fire. Also, it is essential to prepare all needed materials by hand so that you can build and light the fire without much effort. Find a base and softwood to start the fire easily. Prepare some hardwood by hand to allow the fire to maintain its temperature and make warm coals.
There are some things you should take into consideration when choosing a place for building a fire. There is always a danger of the fire spreading around and catching things on fire, which is not what we want.
Before starting the fire, you should clean around and build a fire ring out of stones. The ring should be built away from bushy branches because they are a potential danger in case of winds.
When I said to clean around, I thought of any flammable material around the fire ring. Remove all dry leaves, branches, and softwood from the ground to prevent fire spread.
Building a Fire Step By Step
Step 1. Find a place for the fireplace
Your fire should be built safely, so try to remove all natural flammable materials from the spot where you want to build a fire. Also, the surrounding should be clear in a radius of at least 1 meter for smaller fires.
As I previously mentioned, it is best to build a fire ring out of stones or make a mound fire, depending on the available materials and supplies you carry in your survival backpack kit.
The base on the ground should be mineral soil, gravel, or sand.
You can safely build a fire on these surfaces, knowing it would not spread or cause damage around you.
Step 2. Gather all supplies
Collect tinder, kindling, and firewood. These three fuel types are needed to easily and successfully light a fire. The tinder is often the fire’s base because it burns fast. The tinder comprises dry leaves, forest duff, and twigs.
The kindling is often small sticks you can find everywhere around on the ground. They are also pieces of wood, but their size and thickness allow them to burn much faster.
In the end, the firewood. Firewood can be any larger piece of wood that will keep the fire going longer. In this case, I recommend you collect bigger hardwood branches or wood because they burn slowly and maintain the fire for longer.
Read more: How to Build a Teepee With a Fire Pit
Step 3. Choose a fire-building technique
There are multiple fire-building techniques, so I guess you know at least one or two if you have built a fire before.
Cone or tepee technique is the choice of most experts. This technique is easier and makes tall flames. To build the cone fire, you should place tinder and kindling in a cone shape in the center of the fire. Then, place the hardwood over the kindling, also in a cone shape. Light the kindling and wait until the base makes flames and starts burning the hardwood.
The log cabin technique might be good if the wood and kinglings you found around are green and wet. This fire position allows them to dry in place. To build the log cabin fire, you should place fuel wood on each side of the tinder pile in a parallel position. Build multiple layers by adding fuel wood and kindling. Keep the square structure.
The last technique is called pyramid or upside down. In this technique, you place the largest logs at the bottom, side by side. The next layer is smaller logs placed at 90 degrees angle over the bigger logs. Continue building the layers from bigger to smaller, making them look like a pyramid. Kindling and tinder go on the top.
Step 4. Light the fire
Having a light or match is the first must-have thing you should carry anywhere you go camping or hiking. If you don’t have any, it might be pretty hard to try to light the fire with sticks and stones.
Always carry waterproof matches and a firestarter in your backpack.
Light the fire and lightly blow on the tinder to give it more oxygen. You have the fuel, heat, and oxygen, the three things that make the fire triangle.
Oxygen increases the flame intensity and ignites the wood.
Step 5. Extinguish and clean up the fire when leaving
If you want to leave while there are still flames or warm coals, try to extinguish them with water.
In case you are on a survival period, and every water drop is important, you can extinguish the fire with other methods, like sand and dirt or snuffer.
Ensure you have extinguished the fire completely before leaving to prevent a disaster from happening.
Also read: How to Keep a Fire Going in the Rain
Conclusion
What should you do before starting a fire? Knowing that might help you survive in many conditions and events outdoors. Having the necessary survival kits is also a good advantage because it simplifies your primitive work in the wild.
Having a good survival education is the most necessary thing when camping and hiking, especially in unknown areas.