How to Start a Camp Fire with One Match

Oh no! How will you roast your hotdogs and make smores? You're down to ONE match and civilization is so far away! How will you start your fire with just one match? Don't worry...here's what you do...

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A match and something to strike it on
• Very small, dry sticks, also known as "tinder" or "grump" depending on where you live.
• Increasingly thicker and larger pieces of wood and other things that burn

1. Preparation is the most important part. When you light that match, you'll want to have everything you need within reach to nourish that fire and keep it going.
   
   First you need to get the driest, thinnest twigs you can find in the woods or around your yard. These twigs should be no thicker than a tooth-pick. Take your time with this step, since it's the most important to get good tinder or "grump."
   
   They need to be dry. When you bend them, they should have a faint, but satisfying snap sound and a clean break. If you can find dry twigs without bark, that's best. Bark tends to hold in moisture, and moisture is bad news for starting a fire.
   
   Find a couple of fist-fulls of these twigs and place them by the fire area. Then go back into the woods.
   
   NOTE: Do not use leaves, bark, or pine-cones. These SEEM like a good idea, but they generally just make a lot of smoke and a pretty fickle fire. Dry grass is good to use.
2. Next, you want about four fistfulls of dry sticks about the thickness of your little finger. Make sure they're dry...when you bend them they should snap clean and make a good crack sound. Bring these to your fire area.
3. Now get an armload of sticks about half an inch to an inch thick. Again, make sure they're dry. Usually you can get these from dead branches of trees. The ideal wood won't have any bark on it, and it will be a dry, light gray. Bring this back to your fire place.
4. Now go and get an armload of wood as thick as your fore-arm or larger and bring it back to the fire area. You don't need too much of this stuff right off. By the time you've gotten this burning, you'll have time to forage for more wood as needed.
5. Almost there. Now to arrange the fire. Take half of your tiny, dry twigs and form them into a pile in your fire area. It should look like a miniature thicket.
   
   Place some larger pieces of wood around it to shield it from strong breezes and to help it keep its shape. You want the pile to be tall rather than wide.
   
   Make sure there's a small hole where the match can go.
   
   The idea here is, you're going to light the really small dry stuff. When it catches fire, feed more of the small twigs to it. What you've done is created a core that has attained combustion temperatures. You want to build around that core to both insulate it and give it more fuel.
   
   Once the small twigs are going, slowly feed larger and larger pieces of wood to the fire until you're able to feed the arm sized stuff. Don't add the wood too fast or you'll cut off oxygen flow.
6. Ready? You're about to strike the match. If there's a breeze, position yourself so that you're shielding the twig thicket from the wind.
   
   Strike the match and insert it into the twig thicket, holding it in place for as long as you can. Try to get as many of the small twigs list as you can.
7. Once the thicket is lit, slowly add more twigs to it. Don't add them all at once or you could smother the fire. You want to place them in a controlled manner. As the fire grows, add gradually larger and larger pieces. Add them one at a time, waiting for the new one to catch fire before you add the next.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember! Dry wood. Find the driest pieces you can get.
• If everything is wet, this is going to be hard. Spend extra time looking for dry wood. Even after a hard rain, dry twigs can sometimes be found under large branches or wide evergreens.
• If your fire goes out early on, don't despair. If there's a hot core, you can sometimes place a couple tiny twigs on top of the hot core and blow. This gives more oxygen to the embers and makes them hotter until the wood above it reaches combustion temperature (about 500 degrees)
• If your fire goes out and you have more matches, use 'em.
• Don't be too timid around the fire. You'll need to add new twigs and sticks calmly and in a controlled way.
• Fire is hot. Fire burns. Be careful around fire.
• Keep a bucket of water around the fire just in case things get out of control.
• Roll up your sleeves and be mindful of dangling, loose fitting clothes that might fall into the fire while you're working.
• When blowing into the fire, be aware that the twigs can pop and send out embers, so try to shield your eyes.