How to Start a Wood Fireplace in a Mobile Home

A mobile home likely uses a wood burning fireplace.

In many cases, a fireplace built into a mobile home requires the use of wood for burning and not natural gas or propane. Starting a fire in a fireplace takes practice and to do it properly you must learn the correct technique. Do not get frustrated if your first couple of fires takes a while to start. With a little practice, you will become an expert at starting wood fires in your mobile home fireplace.

Things You'll Need

• Fireplace grate or andiron
• White paper
• Lighter
• Small kindling
• Smaller sized wood
• large size wood

Instructions

1. Remove any ash left in the fireplace from the previous burning with a shovel and a metal bucket. Wet the ashes with water to ensure you cool down any hot embers in the ash.

2. Place a fireplace grate or andiron in the center of the fireplace. This keeps the wood off the floor of the fireplace and promotes oxygen flow under and around the wood. This helps to keep a fire burning. If you do not have a grate or andiron, stack the wood in a manner that allows oxygen to flow through the wood.

3. Crumple up a few pieces of white paper and place the white paper under the grate or onto the floor of the fireplace.

4. Place a layer of kindling on top of the paper or on top of the grate. Kindling is small wood such as sticks or twigs. If possible, create a teepee with the kindling to help increase airflow.

5. Light the paper with a lighter and wait for the kindling to catch fire. Add kindling as necessary until you can maintain a roaring fire.

6. Place two or three smaller logs to the fire. Space them out so they do not smother the fire. Once the fireplace reaches normal operating temperatures, you can add larger pieces of wood.

References

• Fireplace Village: How to Start a Wood Burning Fireplace; February 2010