Knowing the common mistakes to avoid when building a fire will save you from spending another freezing night in the wilderness. These pitfalls are nothing to be ashamed of, as even an unmindful pro may fall into any. No one came out of his mother’s womb clutching a manual of campfire making in his little fingers. We have had to learn them from time to time.
5 Mistakes To Avoid When Building A Fire
There may be times in the wild that require making a fire instantly. In such crucial moments, you have to build a fire quickly, and yet carefully. Else, your survival may be greatly threatened. This expertise will undoubtedly demand thoroughness and speed from you, meaning that you must eliminate the risk of mistakes or margin for errors.
Knowing what these pitfalls are likely to be will ensure you do not talk into any. Let’s take a look at the most common mistakes to avoid when building a fire.
Selecting Materials Off Wet Grounds
Picking wet sticks is, without a doubt, the costliest error you’ll be making when building a fire. What’s more, many people can’t identify wet materials early enough.
I take survival classes, and so when my students start to appear too comfortable or confident, I jolt them to reality with a time-limited, fire-building exercise. After all, the wilderness never warns you. So, out of the blues, the public address system goes thus: “you have 10 minutes to build a good fire.” And then begins the scramble. This assessment has two purposes. The first is to measure the fire-building capabilities of the class, and the second is to help each student realize his failings. Typically, especially when they haven’t built a fire in a long while, 80% of the class can’t make a good fire.
My observation traces this because most students collect tinder and wood off wet ground because they do not have the time to check well. I understand that picking fire materials from the ground is the typical conditioning of most preppers, but you may have to review this. The driest, most flammable fuel in any environment is usually gotten from still standing woody plants, shrubs, and trees. So, the next time you have to build an emergency fire, you’re likely to be better off collecting brown pine needles, twigs, dead branches, and crunchy leaves.
Using Rotten Wood
Decomposing or decomposed wood is a weak fuel for building a fire, yet it is one of the most readily available. That looks just like why making a good fire is too difficult for some.
Woody materials are broken down by basically two organisms: bacteria & fungus. These two are usually at work before the death of the leaves or branches, and they may even be the catalysts. As these organisms eat more of these woods, they become less valuable for making fire. That is, with each step taken towards total decomposition, the material becomes less fuel.
Therefore, if you want to make a good fire, start the process with healthy, yet to be rotten woodpile. Sticks to be used should splinter when broken instead of breaking off in blunt-ended chunks. Additionally, one should avoid branches with fungal growth. These include wood ears, mushrooms, shelf fungi, and witch’s butter.
Using The Wrong Method of Ignition
There are several methods of igniting a fire, ranging from ancient techniques like friction & stone beating to modern-day methods like steel wool & batteries. Whichever the technique, you’ll make a fire, but only when used appropriately. However, some ignition techniques are not as versatile as others.
For instance, while spark rods can work with various fuels, the materials to be used must be fibrous or fluffy. Solid fuels, such as twigs and sticks, will hardly be lighted using spark rods. Let us also consider the use of a magnifying glass. On a sunny day, you shouldn’t use white cotton balls, because the bleached white disperses the heat you’re to gather. Thus, this constant reflection of heat makes the combo nearly impossible to ignite a fire. Butane lights may have no gas left if you accidentally push the operating button before it is time to use, and matches will rarely work in the wind.
In the end, what matters most is that you use an ignition technique that complements available fuel materials.
Inadequate Use of Tinder
Tinder is an essential ingredient if you want to make a fire that will be long-lasting and useful. Insufficient use of tinder in the foundation (perhaps tipi or any other structure) is the reason big fire lays often turn to charred, hollow structures within a little while.
Under usual circumstances, two big handfuls of timber are ideal for the foundation, and a third handful set aside in case of necessity. However, if there’s a pressing need for the fire, the solution is to get more tinder. Crunchy dead grasses, brown pine needles, and dead crumbly leaves are good tinder options for you in the wild.
Tinder has to be dead & dry, just like the sticks you collect. And that includes doing away with rotten tinder as well.
Poor Consideration Of The Wind
Matches, spark rods, or other methods of fire will hardly be productive if you light them unprotected against the wind. As such, when lighting your fire structure, light the structure on the side that’s receiving the wind. The incoming wind will blow the flame into the lay instead of the open air.
Fire ascends, so you should light your flame underneath the lay, rather than over it. The former option will see that the lit flame climbs up to the fuel in a seamless transition against the latter style that will be illogical.
Concluding The Mistakes To Avoid When Building A Fire
Selecting the wrong location is highly devastating, and thus, one of the deadliest mistakes to avoid when building a fire. Wildfires are now an annual ritual across America. That’s fire scorching the earth and all in its path for how long it deems fit. This can be for a few days, weeks, or even months.
All it takes to turn your little campfire into a destructive campfire is some wind to blow it onto parched grass. If the location is wrong for a fire, maybe due to wind or the soil topography, don’t ever light a fire. Protect yourself and others.