How to Build a Campfire

When you are out in the wilderness, it is a custom and tradition to build a campfire. The choice is up to you what kind you want, or if you want to use it to cook food.

Steps

Situate your fire at least 10 feet away from tents, trees, roots and other flammable items if there's no fire ring available. Make sure you have a flat area, preferably dug a few inches into the ground to contain the fire, but if you're desperate, just make sure there are no sticks, leaves, or roots in the way. Clear a space 24 to 32 inches across. If there is less than 2 feet of soft snow, this can be cleared away with snow shoes or by kicking. If it is hot and you are surrounded by a lot of pine trees, take special care to set the fire in a vast clearing, as green pine trees are extremely flammable themselves as is the gaseous oil they expire.
- To build a fire that leaves an even smaller impact on the surroundings:
  1. Locate a source of disturbed soil such as a toppled tree or collapsed embankment.
  2. Spread a tarp on the intended location of the fire.
  3. Mound soil from the already disturbed site on top of the tarp. Apply copious amounts of earth to ensure that the ground is well insulated from the fire.
  4. Flatten the mound to a workable fire platform. Build a small fire as described below.
  5. Burn all charred wood to ash, and let the fire burn itself out cold. Carefully douse the ashes with small amounts of water to be sure.
  6. After the fire is done, set the ash layer aside on the tarp, return the clean earth to the disturbed site, and pack out or widely disperse the ashen earth and coals.
Make a ring of rocks if one isn't already there. This will help to contain the fire, thus preventing forest fires. However, don't build your fire against a boulder or other rocks, as it may leave unsightly burn marks. Avoid rocks that might be saturated with water, as steam pressure buildup within the rocks can lead to explosive fracturing that may injure nearby people. Plan a fire control plan; prepare a bucket of water for each tent and an especially large bucket for the campfire location. Agree on the maximum volume of the fire.
Gather firewood and kindling using only fallen branches.
- Gather twigs and sticks and divide them into three categories: (a) twigs less than a quarter inch in diameter (four of them together should be no thicker than your pinky), (b) sticks no more than an inch thick (about the thickness of your thumb), and (c) larger sticks up to three inches in diameter (about wrist-sized) and set these aside. This doesn't have to be perfect and after building a few fires, you'll get a feel for how these categories pertain to stages of the fire.
- The fuel should be as dry as possible. Look under logs and roots to find dry wood. Also look up in trees for fallen branches and deadwood that have hung up in a live tree. Clumps of pitch and birch bark make good fire starters. If you have a saw and ax, dry kindling can be split out of the center of standing dead wood. This will be dry even in the wettest conditions. If gathering of indigenous plant life is permitted, Sassafras, which is prolific in much of eastern North America, can provide a useful kindling in wet conditions.
- Note that many parks and wilderness areas even forbid gathering fallen material, which plays an important role in the ecosystem.
Gather up a dense handful of pinestraw, leaves, or any other similar plant remains (You want to grab as much as possible with one hand - have some fuel busting out of the gaps in your hand). The key here is to balance exposed surface area and density - pinestraw works well because the pieces have such small diameters and bunch together very nicely, but sunbaked moss, shaved bark, lichen, and even some oily green plan matter can perform nicely. If you're forced to use larger pieces of starter fuel such as paper or large leaves, try ripping them into thin strips (as thin as possible) before lighting. Make sure this fuel is as dry as possible. If you are having trouble gathering dry material, make sure you dry some suitable fuel at the fire and save it for later. If you are trying to start a fire in damp conditions, any material on or near the ground will be wet as will the lower dead branches of trees. Look for dry material in sheltered locations (under rocks, logs, in holes, etc.). Birch bark, pitch, or even some green plants like pine or sassafras will burn even if it is wet.
Build a small, loose pile of kindling, making sure to allow space for air to feed the fire. Include paper scraps, dry plant matter, and any type of wood shavings or straw and other small, flammable items.
Either Construct a pyramid or a lean-to.
1. For a pyramid, make an inward pointing tipi of dry twigs and small sticks around and above the kindling pile, leaving a gap on the side for entering air.
2. For a lean-to, lay down one piece of wood of about two inches in diameter. Use this to lean your smallest kindling against so that you have an air space underneath. If you have birch bark or pitch, place this under your kindling.
Light the kindling with a match.
Add increasingly larger sticks and then logs as the fire grows in strength, always leaving enough space between them for the fire to breathe. As you start placing larger twigs on the fire, use a little more rhyme and reason. For instance, you might wish to criss-cross the handfuls of twigs as you lay them down so that the fire can get air. Place your largest sticks in an arrangement that gives them stability and exposure to the fire without suppressing the airflow to the heart of the fire..
When your fire is done, take special care to completely, excessively extinguish every last ember. Then,

Tips

If you can, bring with you a pair of Welder's or Grilling Gloves for manipulating large logs on the fire. The leather and insulation will save your hands.
If making a campfire, you should consider bringing the wood with you, as the local, fallen branches provide important habitat for local fauna, such as ants, beetles, and termites, which are an important part of the food chain. Fallen sticks and logs also help to prevent ground erosion.

NOTE: Bringing wood with you can introduce the Emerald Ash Borer beetle into an area. For this reason, it is wise to NOT bring wood with you. Burn your wood where you get it.

Pay attention to the rules of the campground, some sites do not want you to bring in wood that could carry invasive species. For example, the Emerald Ash Borer, which is destroying ash trees, is prolific in Michigan and Minnesota and can be transported via firewood. The Department of Natural Resources recommends only bringing wood from within a 50 mile radius. Whatever you bring, burn. You can usually purchase firewood from local residents.
The key to making the fire grow quickly is keeping the diameter of the fuel small and blowing to increase air flow. A larger stick has a higher activation energy than a twig, but it also will release more heat when burned. This heat can be used to ignite fuel of a progressively larger diameter.
By the time you've begun adding sticks from the second category onto the fire, you can begin to relax and take your time - the hard part is over.
In deep snow or hard frozen snow it will be necessary to create a platform. If you try to build the fire directly on the snow it will steam and will not burn. A few 4 inch diameter sticks laid together will suffice. Once the fire is well established it will keep burning into the snow until it reaches the ground. If the snow is very deep this can be a problem. Pushing the fire to the side will keep you from ending up with a fire burning at the bottom of a deep hole.
If you want your fire to be a continual source of warmth and light, you're going to need to take the next step up. Look for the heartiest looking logs you can find in your area. The best wood will be large in diameter and dense, but you will often find mostly partially decayed fallen trees - you may have to settle for these and they'll do okay.
- Try using the "log cabin" (placing two large, heavy logs parallel to each other with a space in between, then placing the next two logs parallel on top of those). Use the first two logs to gather the coals together between them. Placing these logs on the ground with the embers piled up between them will help concentrate the heat of your fire and the logs will also prevent heat from escaping through the edges of the fire. More than two layers in a log cabin is usually unnecessary, as much of the heat is lost into the atmosphere. Add more large logs if you require more heat from the fire. At this stage of the fire, adding sticks less than three inches in diameter will produce no noticeable results whatsoever and will contribute to coal-choking ash.
- If only long timbers are available and you lack an axe or saw, you can feed the ends of the timbers into an established fire, scooting fresh wood into the flames on a rotating basis.
An open flame does not mean something is very hot. The flame-free coals of a later-stage fire will ignite a thumb-sized stick almost instantly whereas your lighter may not ever accomplish the feat. Keeping this in mind, you can manipulate the fire more effectively because you can run your hand through flames as long as you don't hold it for too long.
If bugs are a problem, try putting moist or young leaves and sticks onto the fire to create more smoke. This is your best repellent and you will rarely have an insect problem near a campfire. This also repels some predators.
If a previously-lit fire is sputtering, try getting your face as close to the source of the fire as possible without risking burns and blowing, observing the red glow. The increased oxygen flow to this part of the fire is temporarily increasing its heat quite a bit. If you place a tinder or kindling type of fuel on top of this ember as you blow on it, you will once again achieve an open flame. Build from this flame using the same steps listed above.
- In blowing, do not try to blow as hard as possible--that only results in dizziness. Instead, work with natural breathing patterns to influence fresh air on the hot spot. The fire does not need the oxygen-depleted, moist air from your lungs so much as it needs the surrounding air that it drags in.
If your fire won't light, you're most likely using fuel that is either too damp or too large for that stage.
In a survival situation, building your fire with a large rock as a backstop can reflect a lot of heat back toward you and can also act as a heat sink. Do not set the fire too close to a rock face though, because when some rocks heat up, shards can pop off and fly out at you.
Bring along a grill, which may be rested on the fire ring to cook on. A pot in the coals works great too.
Whenever you go into the woods, take multiple sources of fire with you. If a flint type lighter gets wet, it may stop working. An electronic lighter can be useful in that it only needs to be turned upside down and tapped against the palm of your hand to remove moisture. Other sources of fire include:
- Waterproof matches: available at most camping supply stores
- Steel wool and a 9-volt battery: Steel wool is flammable, and placing both contacts of a 9-volt against the mesh creates a great deal of heat. Keep them separated in your gear.
- Flint-and-steel: The traditional method is still a favorite of many campers, and there are some popular commercial improvements on this standard.
- A magnifying glass: if you have direct sunlight and a volatile tinder, your have fire.
- Home-made solutions: rubber-banded strike-anywhere matches doused in paraffin wax, model rocket engines, road flares and commercial products.
If you are building a fire in rainy weather, prepare by bringing along a "trench candle". Roll up a strip of newspaper (3-4 inches), and dip in melted paraffin. This will stay dry in wet weather, and help slightly damp kindling light.
If using a campfire spot others have previously used, make use of any "charred wood" left behind- it will burn in your fire, and will decrease the amount of logs you will need to gather and burn.
NEVER BURN SYNTHETIC WASTE MATERIALS--they leave with you. Leave the site better than you found it. If the site is an established campsite, leave the fire ring but remove the ashes and all surrounding trash. If you're the first to camp in the spot, disperse the fire ring rocks, refresh the vegetation and make sure all traces of your presence are removed. All feces should be buried, and all trash and food scraps should leave with you.
- Campfire ashes should be widely dispersed away from the campsite. Localized overabundance of ashen material damages ecosystems. Sift the ashes for carelessly tossed in waste materiel--beer cans do not burn.
- Plan ahead for the end of the fire. All partially burned wood must be burned to ash. The fire should be extinguished with water, not earth or sand unless there is an emergency. Remaining unburned wood should be dispersed in a natural manner.

Warnings

Always have someone watching your campfire - don't leave it unattended.
Be sure to familiarize yourself with the fire regulations of the area you're camping in before starting a fire.
Never make a ring around the fire with rocks from a water source-the water can embed itself in the rocks and the heat can cause them to explode.
All fires get extremely hot as does the coal that they produce - never attempt to contain a fire with your hand - you will be burnt.
Always make sure to extinguish the fire fully before leaving the fire pit.
While fires will repel bugs and the like, they may attract curious animals. Animals will rarely enter a clearing with an open fire in it, but they may observe it from cover and take notes. Keep your food away from your sleeping location, preferably in a bag hanging high above the ground - you'd be surprised how crafty raccoons and bears can be!
Never leave an open fire unattended. Before you leave your fire permanently, remove all fuel and spread the coals out on the ground. If available, pour water on these so that they stop glowing. In the daytime, you won't be able to see the glow of these coals, so be especially wary.
When traveling in the back country in cold weather always begin building your fire as soon as you stop. You may feel hot and sweaty but this will soon change to chills. It is a good idea to start gathering your fuel before you stop and then wait until you come to a good spot before stopping. A protected location (out of the wind, overflow, or avalanche path) with a good place to build your fire is always best. Stuff your mittens inside next to your body while working with your fingers (lest they be frozen hard when you try to put them back on).

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