Making Fire

For a wet sailor straggling ashore, with or without a boat, fire is a godsend...

Article by Bryce Potter

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For a wet sailor straggling ashore, with or without a boat, fire is a godsend—second only to shelter when surviving in the cool, wet-weather regions. Even in warmer climes, fire is necessary for boiling any drinking water that you don’t know to be pure.

There are many ways to make fire, both with and without modern aids. I’ll touch on just a few methods that have worked well for me over the years.

The first step, whether using primitive or modern methods, is collecting wood and building a fire structure. Start with a few handfuls of the thinnest standing dry wood that you can find. Take two handfuls of this tiny wood, anywhere from 4 to 8 inches long, and stick them together in a triangular tipi structure. Simply push the tops of the bundles together and balance them, then add two more handfuls of the same size wood at not-quite right angles. Leave space on one side for a door, where you will eventually light the fire. Continue to add gradually larger sticks, in bunches at first, forming your tipi-like structure.

While you are collecting wood, you’ll want to gather tinder as well. Any light, fluffy, flammable material works well. Depending on the size of your fire, you’ll want to form a ball of tinder (between a golf ball and softball in size) and I suggest collecting two or three, just in case your first attempt at fire-lighting is unsuccessful.

No-Equipment Fire

If you truly come ashore with nothing, you’ll be glad you practiced primitive fire-making skills. Most primitive methods involve the creation of a coal, which is then transferred to a tinder bundle and gently blown into flame. It will smoke like crazy before it catches fire, at which point the tinder bundle is placed through the door into the center of your fire structure. This process of blowing a coal into flame is magical and highly recommended, even using modern methods.

The most reliable and easy-to-learn method of primitive fire-making is the bow drill—capable of creating a coal under nearly any conditions. The catch is that it requires cordage, which is a large additional step in a survival situation. The bow drill requires a few other parts—spindle, fireboard, handhold, and bow— but these can be manufactured relatively simply with a knife or the sharp edge of a broken rock. (There are many bow drill videos on YouTube, and www.practicalprimitive.com has some of the best.)

There are several other primitive fire-making methods, but start with the bow drill. When you’ve mastered it, the hand drill accomplishes the same thing without relying on cordage.

Modern Fire

There are a number of modern fire-making tools out there. The most obvious is the ubiquitous BIC-style cigarette lighter. I’ll often stash three of these in various pockets. My personal favorite way to make fire with a cigarette lighter is to burn the end of a small stick with the lighter until it forms a coal. I then drop the coal into a tinder bundle and blow the coal into flame, just as I would for a primitive fire. It retains some of the magic of blowing a coal into flame, without the need to construct a primitive fire kit if you are in a hurry.

Lifeboat matches are another option. These heavy-duty waterproof matches usually come in a watertight container; the heads extend for nearly half the length of the match, and are coated in wax for waterproofness. They will stay lit, even in a heavy rain, for as long as it takes the head to burn. It’s worth buying two boxes and practicing your lighting technique on the first box. (It sounds silly, but the first time you apply a waxed match head to a striker you will see why I recommend practice. As with any skill, practice will make it easy enough that you can light them reliably with shaky, hypothermic hands.)

Another excellent option is any of the blowtorch-type lighters that produce a hot blue flame. Pick one with a closable, waterproof lid, and quickly make a coal for your tinder bundle.

With any of these modern methods, redundancy is a wonderful thing. Fire-starters are very light and can live in your pockets, in your abandon-ship bag, in your cook box, or in the pocket of your PFD. The more that you have the better—just remember to practice with all of them, under all conditions, before you need them for real. (Build a fire in your backyard in a downpour and find out what it really takes to light a campfire with a lighter before your life depends on it.)

Using Fire

Now that you have a fire, what do you do with it?

The most pressing need will likely be warmth. Enclosing yourself and the fire space with a reflector wall or building it in a location with natural reflectors will help tremendously. Keep all combustibles far enough from the fire that they don’t light, and watch for sparks. Stacked debris stuffed between upright sticks stuck in the ground makes a wonderful reflector if you have enough debris handy. You can also stack rocks or drag over a few logs. Every situation is different and you’ll have to adapt with the materials at hand.

Second on the list of needs is water. Fire can distill saltwater into fresh, if you have the appropriate materials, or it can be used to boil fresh water that you’ve found ashore. If you don’t have a metal container, do not despair. Find a few rocks from a high, dry spot and put them in the fire to heat up. (Do NOT use rocks that have been immersed in water—they can explode with lethal force.) While you’re waiting for the rocks to heat up, find a chunk of wood and put some coals on top of it. You can blow on the coals if you like to speed up the process. When there is a healthy layer of charcoal under the coals, remove them and use a rock to scrape away the charcoal. Repeat this step until you have burned a hollow bowl into the wood. Put your fresh water into the bowl, retrieve a hot rock from the fire, and drop it into the bowl. Watch the magic of an instant boil. Add rocks as necessary to keep it at a boil as long as necessary to kill any pathogens that might be present, then let it cool until you can drink it.

With shelter, fire, and a source of clean water, you can survive for a few weeks even without food. Practice early and often, so that under stress you can make the skills work and survive to sail another day. •SCA•

As first appeared in issue #99