Arranging Wood for a Campfire

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is John Stewart, and this is how to construct the sticks for building a fire. Once you've got your kindling, your igniter, and your other parts to building your fire, you got to set your fire up. What you want to do is you want to put your igniter source at the base of your fire, put some kindling around it, and then begin to build your actual fire. Once you've got the kindling laid, you got to choose what type of fire you want to build. There's three basic types. If you have a log that's laid out beside your fire you can start a lean-to. All you're going to do is put your kindling close to the log, and prop other sticks and burning pieces of wood up on the log to where there have a place to be propped up. Second style is a log cabin style. This is where you're just going to crisscross logs, and lay them across each other to build a log cabin, just like you did when you were a child. Build this up and over the fire so that it begins to rise up. Log cabin fires are really good for when you're cooking, and want to get some really good coals. Third and last type of fire is a tepee style fire. The tepee style fire is very good for when it comes to morning heat. In really cold climates you want to build a tepee fire. To build the tepee fire, you want to take three or four larger sticks, put them over your kindling, prop them up at top; you'll see some people in the beginnings take and put a little piece of wire or string, just so that you've got a base, and then you just prop trees and other sticks all around that to where it can burn, and it really concentrates the heat to where you get a really warm fire. And this is how to lay the sticks for building a fire."