Survival Fire

[ICEMAN]

FYI, I am currently raiding some stories and articles I wrote a few years ago on a hiking website. Here is one I wrote about a survival fire I made. Written in 2004, I took to make this survival fire in about 2001 in the south side of the Olympics in February. If you have never done something like this, I encourage all to do it. I learned a ton from this excursion and do not take fire making skills lightly. If you have issues making a fire at camp, you are going to die in the woods.

Here is my 2004 article:

Survival Fire

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Thought I would provoke some discussion on the topic of creating a survival fire. We are talking about making a fire when you absolutely need it most. Worse case scenario. You are wet and cold. Your fuel is wet and cold, or frozen. You need a fire to survive.

As a dress rehersal for these conditions, three years ago, I planned a half azzed attempt at seeing how easy I could build my survival fire in the wet and cold of the Pacific Northwest Olympics, in February. I decided to play it safe and bring a tent, and to stay within 30 minutes of my truck. With wet rain and occasional sloppy snow blowing thru the air, I took to make my survival fire.

Here is what I did:
Location. I picked the best location I could find to make my fire. Some place that provided some form of protection from the constant rain and drizzle. I found a large cedar tree that had a mild lean to it. Right behind the tree was a good source of wood. Soggy, but much available, an overturned tree root ball, and a fallen broken tree top. Both soggy and wet, but I figured that if I could get my fire going well enough, wet wood in concentration would be better than having to go searching all over the place to drag "wet" wood together. I planned my fire beneath the leaning portion of the tree.

Fuel gathering. I still had to try to gather something that would actually burn. I brought with me firestarter goodies, but if you have ever experience trying to make a fire in extremely wet conditions, you know that a few firestarters does not make a fire. I located a fallen section of tree that had decayed a bunch. Probably too much to be considered fuel, but I kicked and kicked at it, and found a section in the middle that delaminated sort of like layers of paper. These were wet, but thin. I figured as I started to make my fire, that they would dry easy, and in their sheet form, would be great to keep out the rain and wind, and bounce heat back onto the early flame. I also paid attention to gather microscopic thin twigs. Lots. Although also soggy, I knew I would need these.

Fire Foundation. After rounding up all the necessary materials to make fire, I started by laying a large section of tree bark across a few large sticks to make a shelter to build the fire under. Inside of this, I started by making a sort of "birds nest" of really fine twigs. In the middle portion of this, I placed long thin shaving of the tree "paper". These stood up, waiting for flame to crawl up them. I then brought out my homemade firestarter kit, dryer lint, some waxed paper, and a bic lighter.

Here we go... I placed a wad of the dryer lint at the bottom of my "fire", shredded some waxed paper, and touched it off. Thirty seconds, maybe a minute of flame. Nothing else. Didn't even seem like it warmed my tinder. I tried this three or four times. I warmed my tinder. Schitt!

OK, now I am actually getting a bit cold here. My gore tex rain coat is soaking thru, and every time I reach down to do something with my "fire", my sleeve directs water directly at whatever I am trying to touch with my hand. And, mind you, we are under the best shelter that I could find.

Start from scratch. Go find thinner, dryer stuff. Slop, slop, slop around looking for something dry. Now I give in and grab my baby fiskar axe from my backpack and start chopping a larger log, hoping to find it dry inside. It is! I chop and chop, and chop until I get inside a ways, and start to shave out some mostly "dryish" slender shavings. Chopped the tip of my glove nearly off, with my too sharp axe. Close one...Hurry back now to try to make fire. I'm cold now.

Now on my knees, hunkered over, peering under a smoky bark lid, and trying to salvage anything that had partially dried earlier. Scoot this stuff together, pull out more lint, a scrap more of waxed paper, lighter. New tinder... Blow, Blow, blow, cough, nasty smoke makes the lungs wheeze...Knees are soaking thru on the mud. Fire emits smoke. Keep working it, keep working it...come on baby! Out. MUTHER &$#%!!! This is not funny now. What the Hell am I doing out here F'ing around with this mud pile, when I could at home snuggled up in bed!!!

Calm down, you can do this, that almost worked last time. I am no weenie. Remember why I came here, just for this....Try it again, thinner shavings, used my knife to split what had already smoked..., warm to the touch, sooty mess. Reassemble the sooty tinder stuff, a bit more lint, blow blow blow. And guess what....after an hour and a half, I had fire. Smoky, stinky, sting your eyes fire. It took me another hour to get this fire going well enough that I felt comfortable enough walking into the surround woods in search of some big ass logs to drag down to the fire. I spent until midnight feeding that fire. the rain and snow finally stopped around 10pm. At 8pm, I broke out my Jack Daniels, and some Yukon Jack. By 10pm I was rather drunk. By midnight, I was very drunk, very warm and had mostly dried out and finally crashed, stumbling into my solotent and sleeping it all off....

Here is what I learned;

Bring more, better fire starter. I was drastically close to running out of my cheesy firestarter stuff that I brought. I am smarter now. Bring some tin foil. I now carry my emergency firestarter kit, and wrap a couple of feet of aluminum foil around the kit. I have since learned to practice making my tiny, tiny starter fire in a tin foil "box" that I make at the base of my fire. The tinfoil works great to keep things dry, and bounce the heat back at your tinder. Start your fire early. This fire may take some time to actually "take"... Do not wait until you are so cold, and so psyched out that you cannot get things together and actually make this fire work. Psychologically, I was getting pretty worried and started to think that I was not going to get my fire going, very depressing. I can imagine if you were lost, and already very cold, these failures could "do you in" mentally. When I finally got a good fire going, my whole outlook changed. And, although I was not lost, was not far from my truck, had an MRE waiting for me...., when my fire took, it really cheered me up.

I now carry better firestarters. More of them. I like to carry some thin strips of sliced cardboard I have dipped in wax, so that I have tinder that I can slowly place into the exact spot I desire, one by one, to keep the start of my flame from going out. And I have learned to keep draggin way way more wood than you think you will need, to the fire location. You cannot have too much. You can have too little. Think small at the start.

I also like to have a wall behind me, and a wall on the opposing side of the fire, to bounce heat back at me. In this case, I spent the night sitting between my cedar tree and my fire. The tree had my "back" too, sort of my buddy watching my backside. (Cougar country, and the occasional spooky noise...)

I remember looking into my large pile of coals later in the eve, and thinking what a wonderful sight my fire would be to someone who was lost and alone out there....well I sort of remember thinking it...sort of....

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December 2008 edit; I now carry a few of my homemade dunkable firestarters, some vaselined cotton balls, more waxed paper, more tin foil, a wad of those "trick" birthday candles that dont blow out, two different lighters, and a few types of survival type matches.

[Skyvalhunter]

Thanks Ice!! Also more Jack Daniels and yukon Jack as its good anti-freeze. 

[boneaddict]

   You are as obnoxious as I am.  I said the same thing in the other survival thread.

[Charlie]

December 2008 edit; I now carry a few of my homemade dunkable firestarters, some vaselined cotton balls, more waxed paper, more tin foil, a wad of those "trick" birthday candles that dont blow out, two different lighters, and a few types of survival type matches.

Great story on an important topic!! Thanks for the tips. 

[ICEMAN]

No problem. It was a fun little excursion.... Once in a while as I hunt, I look over at a toppled tree and think, there...there is where I would build my fire if I needed to. Look at all that fuel...

[Huntbear]

Excellent article!!!!  I have been there and done that!

I carry one of those sparking fire starters, works even wet.  I also carry a fire starter log.  Those small ones made by Presto logs (i think) in addition to waterproof lighter/matches and the tried and true dryer lint. I also started carrying the cotton balls and vaseline a few years ago.
On a side note, shoe laces will burn too and rather well in a pinch.

I have stayed out by choice or not on several occasions and taught wilderness survival to Boy Scouts for 4 yrs.  I am always prepared.  Having a family friend die of hypothermia while elk hunting when I was a kid did a lot to make me always be prepared for any weather.

[ICEMAN]

Yeah, no kidding....shoe laces....it is amazing what burns well that we carry and forget about.  I use rubber bands around all the stuff in my pack to reduce size....Rubber bands burn like a MFer.  I have toyed with all sorts of stuff....Purrel hand sanitizer burns good.....even Cool mist breath spray burns great.... 

The thing I always have worried about is this; alot of the stories I have read of dead hunters or fishermen, was that they possessed fire making 'stuff' on their bodies, but waited so long that the advanced stages of Hypothermia had set in, they were basically not physically able to use the stuff they carried, hands dont work well, and psychologically they were fried..... Guys found ditching their gear, taking coats off...found dead sitting in front of their backpack with all the stuff they needed to make fire, but the didn't... 

I guess guys push on and avoid the reality that they are lost. Ego...

[high country]

I keep vaseline and cottonballs wrapped in waxed paper handy. a spark lights it and it will burn every time.

[Bighorse]

I think its the fuzzy head thing........get cold enough and your perceptions change significantly.  Were all very domesticated too.  Alot of guys get homeitis and can't focus on anything other than getting back to camp or home.  As you've shown building a fire take alot of time and thats even if you got good materials.  With that in mind an individual needs to recognize the need for hunkering down and making the transistion from traveling to camping.   

I live in the rainforest of SE Alaska and I've made wet fires.   I carry a bomb proof lighter....like one of those storm proff 50$ things always.  If I have any plans of staying out I'll carry chunks of fire log and or a road flare.  I always have my saw.   You dry wood in a rainforest is often in the middle of a larger piece.  Yellow cedar will burn well green.  Saw off a burl with a mess of sap to really get things intresting.  Saw that yellow buger looking stuff off a giant Sitka spruce.....that will help.   Before the sparks fly.....I've got a mess of material for my fire.  I also never leave home without a headlamp.  Getting good materials takes time.

Its a compromise between a minimalist backcountry traveler and a prepared outdoorsman.  I think with one fire starting material, a lighter , and a saw I've found that.  Its something that I just never leave home without.  I also carry an airial flare, glow stick, and hand held VHF.  Up here the Coast Gaurd will hunt you down with a Jayhawk with nightvision.  It sound like alot but really its like maybe a four pound chunk of survival goodies.

[Huntbear]

What I was taught and passed onto my scouts during Wilderness Survival was this:

When you stop and look around and absolutely nothing looks familiar, or when you stop you feel like you can not get warm, build a fire!   I have been known to build a warming fire in the middle of the day if I am feeling the cold set in, or for nothing else to toast a PB&J sandwich for lunch.  Warm food in your belly does wonders keeping you out of a Hypothermia state.

[boneaddict]

Having lived through the onset of hypothermia, Compliments of Idabooners quick thinking, and having a friend be struck with it on an outing with me, its pretty spooky.   All you want to do is fall asleep.  Its a euphoric high almost where it hurts to move and you are lulled into thinking life is good if you just relax and take a snooze.  Its hard to press on and very hard to regain it back to reallity once it has set in.  You should always get a fire going as soon as its plausible that you are freezing at all, especially if wet.  My friend is a bright man and he was absolutely worthless.  He was too far gone and I almost didn't catch it fast enough.

[ICEMAN]

As I age, I worry about things like this more. I still solo hike and hunt, and always carry a ton of crap for survival, especially when soloing. I have been on one hike when my buddy had the reverse, hyperthermia, just as bad.... which reminds me, I may go raid that story off another site..... make for some good discussion...maybe I will wait until summer for the hot weather stuff.... 


I think a big problem is we are all macho/ego types....and do not want to show our bad judgements, mistakes, even think for a second we may be lost or cold or whatever....this leads many a guy down the deadly road......  Bone, when a friend recognizes a problem....great to have that friend there..... When we solo....?

[boneaddict]

Yeah you have to be more in touch with stuff.  I think it comes from experience I suppose.  I kept pretty close tabs on stuff while hunting.  Built multiple fires becasue of the wet cold conditions.  Even backed off a couple times becasue of dense fog, even with knowing the country well, its easy to get screwed up.  You hit the nail on the head when talking about ego.  A person needs to be humble in the woods, yet confident. 

[robb92]

Very good topic!!! Thanks for posting it!!!!

[runamuk]

As I age, I worry about things like this more. I still solo hike and hunt, and always carry a ton of crap for survival, especially when soloing. I have been on one hike when my buddy had the reverse, hyperthermia, just as bad.... which reminds me, I may go raid that story off another site..... make for some good discussion...maybe I will wait until summer for the hot weather stuff.... 


I think a big problem is we are all macho/ego types....and do not want to show our bad judgements, mistakes, even think for a second we may be lost or cold or whatever....this leads many a guy down the deadly road......  Bone, when a friend recognizes a problem....great to have that friend there..... When we solo....?

Toss those ego's......get practical. 
Maybe being female my brain is wired different but damn if I am lost (rare occurence  ) or cold survival kicks in. This is a great topic and could save lives.