How To Build A Campfire Safely

 Oh yeah!  What'so hard about building a campfire?  Just throw some wood in the fireplace, stove, or fire pit and light it!  Right?  WRONG!  There are better ways, ways that make it easier and safer to light your fire.  Doing it wrong can be frustrating and delay getting your fire going but, more importantly, it can be hazardous!  In more than 40 years of camping I have seen many different ways of building campfires, some rather clever and successful and some definite disasters!  I've seen more than one over-ambitious camper go home without any hair on his arms and missing his eyebrows after over-dousing a fire with gasoline.  A well built fire will be safe, comfortable, and enjoyable.  And it isn't that hard to do.

Most techniques for building fires can be used for campfires, fireplaces, and wood stoves.  Getting a fire going quickly and easily usually depends on proper preparation.  When building a campfire, always make sure your site is properly prepared.  Clear the area for at least 5 feet around the fire pit and at least 10 feet overhead.  When lighting fires in fireplaces and stoves check the dampers and flues and ensure there are no combustible materials on or near the device before igniting your fire.  Proper techniques for starting a fire include the preparation and use of tinder and kindling to get the fire going, the adding appropriately sized fuel as needed.

The first step for building a campfire is to prepare your fire pit.  One of the most common and iconic fire pits is the rock ring.  Another useful option for use in the wilderness is Dakota fire pit.  Always clear the ground around any fire pit for a radius of 5' to make sure your campfire stays where you want it.  When using fireplaces and stoves it is always best to start with a clean space.  Take care removing old ashes as they can sometimes contain hot spots!  Be sure they are cold before putting them into any trash bins.  As a firefighter I once responded to a dumpster fire caused by someone dumping hot charcoal in it.

To build a rock ring, gather enough rocks to make a circle about 3'in diameter, larger if you have a large group and need a bigger fire.  Rocks about 8" or so in diameter are usually large enough to do the job but small enough to move without straining your back.  Scrape the ground inside the rig to remove ALL combustible material and build up a berm along the inside of the ring to fill the gaps between the odd shaped rocks.  You want to control the flow of air to your fire, not have it susceptible to every little ground breeze that blows by between the rocks!

If there are no rocks around, dig down a little bit and build a berm to make a fire pit.  You need something to define the fire area and contain and control the spread of hot ashes once the fire gets going.   A rock ring or berm also helps mitigate ground-level breezes that might have an adverse affect on your fire and control ashes as the fuel burns.

To build a Dakota fire pit, dig a hole about 1' in diameter and about 1' deep.  Then make a smaller hole, 3-4" in diameter about 1' away and dig a tunnel from the top of the small hole the bottom of the larger hole at about a 45 degree angle.  The smaller hole and tunnel will provide a draft down to the bottom of the fire pit.  A Dakota fire pit make a good cooking fire and will not be very visible.  If you need to warm several people or need a signal fire, use a regular rock ring fire pit.  A Dakota fire pit lets you conserve your energy because it usually takes less work than building a rock fire ring and it will conserve fuel since it is quite efficient as a cooking fire.  If your goal is heating an area or a number of people use an open fire pit.

The traditional way to build a fire is from the bottom up. Start with your tinder, then small kindling, then larger kindling, etc and finally add your big logs on top.   Here is an article on tinder and kindling.  The two most common ways to this are the log cabin and tipi structures.  In both of these methods you build a sort of cage of firewood around  your tinder.  For a log cabin structure, the cage is a square shape by alternating pieces of wood stacked  perpendicular to each other around the perimeter, all built around your tinder and kindling.  For the tipi form, the "cage" is built in tipi shape, leaning the tops of pieces of wood against each other to form a cone above your tinder pile.  Then light the tinder and your fire should slowly grow as it consumes larger pieces of fuel.  As it burns, keep adding fuel until  it is a big as you want it.

 Firestarters can be used as an aid to getting your fire going.   You might buy commercial firestarters or make your own.  Bascically a firestarter is bundle of combustible materials that is easy to light and will continue burning long enough to get your tinder and kindling to burn.

 I saw an interesting alternate way to start a fire in a wood stove on a Youtube by Wranglerstar.  It is a top down method.  You start by laying your larger pieces of firewood on the bottom, then lay a second layer of medium sized pieces perpendicular to the first, leaving about a 1" air gap between each piece.  Note each layer is laid all the way across the fire, not just around the outside like  you would with the log cabin method.  Then add your kindling and tinder on top, nestle in some fire starters, and top it off with more kindling.  Then light  the fire starters and you're ready to go.  An advantage to this method is that it doesn't need the frequent attention bottom up fires need to add fuel.  It is pretty much self feeding as the fire works its way down.  Once you set one up like this and light it, you won't need to add fuel for probably at least an hour, depending on how much fuel you start with and how fast it burns.  That can be a particularly nice feature if you have other things to attend to, giving you time to take care of them or for your shop to warm up  before your fire goes out.

I suggest you give the top down method a try one of these days.  It takes a little longer to set up, but not much.  And it frees you up from constantly tending the fire to get it going so overall it may actually save some time.  That can be really handy if you have other tasks around camp or are just firing up the wood stove out in the shop and have other things to do while it warms up.

No matter how you chose to build your fire you will need tinder and kindling and a source of ignition to get it going.  Tinder is very small, dry combustible material like dry grass, wood shavings, or cotton balls.  Kindling is small twigs or sticks, usually smaller than the diameter of your little finger. See my post on log splitting for more information about making kindling. Matches and lighters are the most common and convenient sources of ignition, but in a survival situation you may need to know How To Start a Fire Without Matches.  Normally you start with a small bundle of tinder which can be easily ignited, then add kindling until the fire is large enough to ignite bigger pieces of fuel.

If you are new to building fires you might want to practice in your backyard before setting out on a camping trip where your skills could be put the test and consequences of failure very inconvenient and unpleasant and maybe embarrassing.  Make sure fires are allowed in your jurisdiction.  Cooking fires, like BBQs and small campfires, are usually permitted in residential areas, but some places do prohibit open fires (like campfires) in your own backyard.

Speaking of Fire restrictions.  In many areas you will encounter more stringent fire restrictions during dry summer months, especially in forested areas.  These restrictions are NOT harassment!  They are in place because the risk of a forest fire is great.  Sometimes you can still have a campfire in a forest service approved fire pit (usually only found in forest service campgrounds) but in extreme fire conditions NO fires will be permitted.   Some people think it is OK to have fire after a day or two of rain, but that isn't enough to eliminate the dry condition of the trees so the forest is still a large mass of dry, ready fuel so ALWAYS check the fire condition at the local ranger station or camp host before lighting up!  Remember, if you cause a wildfire you can be held liable for the damages, and that can run into many millions of dollars!  Last year I was called out with our fire department to put out a brush fire at a local campground.  One of the campers had ignored posted fire restrictions and direct personal orders (multiple times!) from the camp ground personnel about having a campfire during the then posted Extreme Fire Danger.  Their belligerent refusal to comply resulted in the loss of several acres of forest at the campground and they were fined by the campground and probably faced further charges for damages from the forest agencies in charge of the area

Learn to burn and burn to learn!

Fire Starters for Campers and Rvers

I'm not talking about people with the pyro kinesis capabilities of Drew Barrymore's character in the 1984 move "Fire Starter", although such a skill would definitely be useful and enviable in a survival situation.  Imagine being able to start a fire just by looking at it!  I'm sure most of us have experienced hot stares from our companions from time to time but unfortunately, combustible materials don't feel that heat the same way we do.

Much is written on ways to start fires without matches or lighters.  And those skills can be very useful and important when you're in survival mode.  But most of the time we want fires will be in a controlled camping environment where we can have a choice of useful tools and methods.  So, unless you frequently put yourself in a survival situation or have a tendency to get lost often, you can usually take advantage of easier ways to get warm.  You can start a fire with ordinary tinder and kindling cut from your firewood, but prepared fire starters usually make it easier.  You want your fire starters to burn long enough to get your fire going.   Fire starters are not a substitute for proper fire building techniques.  When I was managing a resort I had a guest use up an entire box of fire starters without getting his fireplace lit. I could usually get one started with about 1/2 of a fire starter.  Normally you'll still need to start with tinder and kindling and then work your way up to logs but fire starters are a good way to get things going without burning your fingers. As I mentioned before, I've seen inept campers go through an entire box of big fire starters without getting a fire going.  With just a minimum amount of proper preparation I've seen people start fires using only part of one of the same fire starters.

I don't have a lot of hands on experience with commercial fire starters.  I usually rely on traditional, proper techniques of building my fire in stages, starting with tinder, then kindling, then adding larger pieces of wood until it sustains full size pieces of fire wood and logs.   I have tried a few of the commercial wax and sawdust fire starters and found they worked very well.   It took only one match to start the fire starter and only one fire starter to light my fire and the smallest pieces of firewood were about 2-3" in diameter (dry, well-seasoned pine).   Handy if you don't have any readily available kindling or an axe to make some.  However I've seen people who wasted a whole box or more of these excellent fire starters without ever getting their fires going.   No matter what you use to get your fire started, you still need to use some common sense in constructing the fuel pile correctly. Don't waste your time or fire starters trying to ignite large pieces of wood.  Start small, with split kindling or twigs and work your way up.

You may see people using accelerants , like charcoal starter or gasoline, to start a campfire. There is no doubt that is a quick and effective way to start a fire, but sometimes it is TOO quick and TOO effective.  It is a dangerous practice.  I've seen more than one camper go home without his eyebrows or any hair on his arms after being caught in the flare up trying to start a fire with gasoline -- and those were the lucky ones.   Second degree burns are also quite common.  The sudden "whoomp!" when a gasoline soaked pile of wood bursts into life is dramatic and even kind of fun but it can scatter flaming wood in all directions.   If you think you must use an accelerant, exercise caution.   Do not pour on too much and don't wait too long before lighting it.  The fumes become explosive and the longer you wait the more fumes there will be.   Don't strike a match on one of the rocks surrounding your fire pit.   I've seen guys light a match and toss it onto a gasoline soaked pile of wood with amazing and sometimes frightening results.  A safer way is to light the end of a long stick or attach a match to a hot dog cooking wand and use that to ignite the fire from a safer distance.  Even "log lighter" style lighters will put you too close if there are fumes present and I don't know of anyone whose reflexes are quick enough to get back out of the way when an accelerant bursts into flames.  You will have already lost any exposed hair and likely suffered burned skin by the time you can even tell something is happening.

You can buy commercial fire starter kits and they usually work very well.  I like the looks of the Coleman "Strike-a-fire" and have added a package of them to my camping supplies. It is a sawdust and wax fire starter with a built in source of ignition similar to a road flare.  Just strike it on the box like a match or a road flare.  They come 8 in a package for around $5.00.   Speaking of road flares, they are quite effective as fire starters (in fact we use them to start "burn to learn" fires at the fire department  where I am a volunteer fire fighter) but are probably overkill and quite a bit more expensive than commercial fire starters ($2-3.00 each) -- and WAY more expensive than home-made fire starters! Road flares will probably burn much longer than you need for a fire starter, typically at least a half an hour.  You can definitely make your fire starters, often at little or no cost, that work just as well (without the self-striker unless you want to try to embed matches in them) and you have the satisfaction, often, of having recycled some otherwise wasted materials. 

A very good natural fire starter is something "fat wood".  You can buy "fat wood" in camping stores but sometimes you can find it in the forest.  It is found in rotten pine trees.  Dig away the crusty, brown, "alligatored" rotten wood until to find a hard solid core.  It should smell like turpentine.  That heartwood is impregnated with resin that has settled and been concentrated in the core.  It prevents the core from rotting and makes it highly flammable.  Fat wood shavings make excellent tinder to get your fire going.  Often the fat wood will still be dry even if the rotten wood around it is soaked by rain.

Road flares make really good fire starters.  In fact fire departments often use then to ignite training fires or place them in wrecked cars to simulate car fires.  Road flares burn VERY hot (3000F) and will even burn for a few seconds under water so they are handy for igniting wet firewood.

The type of fire starters you choose will depend on where you plan to use them.  Home-made egg carton fire starters (described below) are handy for starting fires around your base camp or in the fireplace at home, but they can be kind of bulky.  Commercial fire starters for hunters come in a pocket-sized pouch that is easy to carry.  A package of 4 is under $3.00 at Walmart.   I haven't tried them yet and the only review I saw on them wasn't very favorable.   It is a good idea to try out your chosen fire starters BEFORE you have to depend on them.   Try them out at home when you have plenty of time to seek alternatives if they don't work to your satisfaction.  Another option that is particularly good for starting fires in wet weather are magnesium shavings.   Magnesium burns very hot and very bright (even when wet) so always exercise caution when using magnesium.  It is what made old fashioned flash bulbs so bright.  You can buy shavings  online in little plastic bags.  You might even get some shavings for free or little cost from a local machine or metal shop.  Magnesium rods or blocks are often part of flint and steel fire starter kits.  You simply shave off some of the block and ignite it with sparks from the flint and steel.  Unlike many kinds of ordinary tinder that won't light when wet (cotton, lint, paper, wood shavings) magnesium WILL still burn when it is wet.  Which also means it is hard to put out with water.  For that you need a Class D fire extinguisher or cover it with sand or dirt.

One of the advantages to making your own fire starters is that they can usually made from materials that are otherwise discarded.  Save the stubs of old candles to be melted down.  Save some old cardboard (not foam) egg cartons.  Save dryer lint.  Save some sawdust.   None of these are much good for anything else.   It is good to recycle them to make fire starters.   I like the old adage: "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."  Making your own fire starters is good way to "use it up" productively.

Dryer lint is often recommended as tinder to start a fire.  It is plentiful and cheap (free!). However, not all dryer lint is the same.  Lint from cotton, such as men's underwear, towels, and denim, works very well.   Lint from synthetics, such a nylon, rayon, and polyester, not so well.  The synthetics often have a tendency to melt rather than ignite.  Mixing lint with wax creates a sure fire solution that might overcome the problem with synthetics.  In this case the lint simply acts as a wick to burn the wax so its own ignition point isn't a major factor.  In fact, if it doesn't burn up it might even last longer.  Spread lint out on foil or a cookie sheet or big cake pan and coat it with melted wax from some old candles making a slab about 1/4" or so thick.   When it cools, cut it into little squares and use them to start your next fire.  For easier lighting, try to leave a little "fuse" of lint at one corner of each square.  Lint can also be used in egg carton firestarters (see below).

My favorite tinder for flint and steel is 100% cotton balls.  They are cheap, light weight, easy to ignite and make great fire starters.  If you saturate them with petroleum jelly they'll burn even longer, giving you more time to get your kindling ignited.   Do not confuse them with synthetic cosmetic puffs.  They look the same but being synthetic they are likely to melt instead of catching fire.

Egg cartons (the old cardboard ones, not Styrofoam), can be filled with wax or a wax/sawdust or wax/lint  mixture to make good fire starters.   Fill each cell with wax or wax and sawdust or lint, let the wax cool, then cut the carton into individual cells.  Leave a point or tag of carton material for a fuse on each cell as a lighting point.  You can light it with one match and each cell will probably burn about 10 minutes to get your fire going.  You will probably only need one for each fire.  You can also use paper towels, crumpled newspaper, cotton balls, or wood chips mixed with wax to fill the egg carton. If you want to see which materials work best, use just one type of fill mixed with wax in each cell. Otherwise you can mix stuff together to fill the cells.   Make sure your wax soaks into the egg carton for each cell.  Note: Styrofoam gives off nasty fumes and tends to melt rather than burn so DO NOT use Styrofoam cartons to make fire starters.  Styrofoam cartons won't soak up the wax the way cardboard does so they don't function as well.  They might also melt when you try to pour hot wax into them and might put out a little bit of undesirable chemicals when they burn.  If you lack lint or sawdust crumple up some old newspaper or paper towels or other scrap paper (like junk mail).

Pine cones dipped in wax provide a fun and fragrant way to get your fire going.  Collect some small pine cones from your yard or on your next camping trip, unless it is against the rules.   Drip the wax from old candle stubs into the crevices or melt the candles in a double-boiler and dip the pine cones in the melted wax.  You might add a bit of cotton cloth as a wick for an initial lighting point for added convenience.  Using them is usually a fun way to entertain and impress your fellow campers.

Store your fire starters safely.   Because they can be easily ignited and burn well (both good things for fire starters!), you need to protect them from accidental ignition.   The best place to store them is in air-tight metal containers.   My next choice would be air-tight plastic food storage containers.   In any case, keep them away from any sources of ignition.   DO NOT store them in places like your furnace or water heater compartments and keep them away from your stoves and ovens.   Because the paper from the egg cartons may absorb moisture, they also need to be protected from getting damp, so keeping them in a tightly sealed steel or plastic container is a good idea. One of my motorhomes had a nice drawer above the furnace.  NOT a good place to store waxy fire starters because they would all, at the very least, melt, and, if it got hot enough, perhaps even ignite.  I found that drawer was perfect for socks and underwear, especially when getting dressed on cold mornings!

Fire starters are NOT a substitute for good fire building practices, just a convenience.  You still need to have appropriate tinder and kindling for the fire starters to light.  If you try to light logs with your fire starters you are destined to fail.  It takes a lot more heat and flame to get a log going than you'll get from even the best fire starters.  Fire starters will help you get your fire going quicker and easier than lighting it with a match and often avoid the burned fingers that can result from holding a match too long or in the wrong position trying to get your fire going.  Build your proper fire around a fire starter leaving access to light the fire starter.  You should be able to get a good fire going with just one match.

Fire up!