Outdoor Adventure USA

Camp Fires, Fire Starting, Tools, Safety, Alternatives, and More

I've been in Indian Guides, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and--perhaps like many--always enjoyed building fires for camp fires, and in fact have always been a bit of a "fire bug". He has passed but you might ask my father about starting our home backyard on fire with match rockets. Oops.

Growing up in Orange County, California, I used to go to Newport Beach with friends to the fire pits on Balboa Peninsula. Looking at Google's satellite map images, it looks like those firepits are still there. Our weekly challenge to each other was to start the fire with "just one match" which we generally accomplished with proper layering of tinder and kindling, and the arrangement of wood fuel over that.

My fascination with building and enjoying campfires continues to this day.

It's not the intent of this net to talk about survivalist uses of fire and fire starting, but more about creating and maintaining a good campfire.

Use of Fire in the Outdoors

In times past, campfires provided warmth, light, and cooking opportunities. While I have rarely seen folks cook over fires during the past many decades, the campfire is in my opinion the key social event while camping with compadres (and of course comadres). Evening campfires, with perhaps adult beverages, provides the high point of many camping trips with comraderie and great discussions. Okay, there's usually some great scenery and fun activities during the day, but I always look forward to the evening gathering.

The only problem with a campfire is that the light interferes with stargazing, but it's not so bright that a few dozen steps away restores night vision.

Fire Laws, Regulations, and Restrictions

Before getting into building fires, we need to find out about any fire laws, regulations, and restrictions.

It's a good idea is to check state websites, check websites for the area you're visiting, and call a ranger for any recent local fire restrictions. Fire restrictions can encompass other recreational uses. For example, target shooting in California national forests has all but been eliminated due to perennial "fire restrictions", while hunting remains legal per Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations. Oh, did I forget to mention "climate change"?

While I sometimes question the motives for California laws, one cannot deny that the state has been in a multi-year drought leaving many areas susceptible to fire devastation.

In some areas, fires even in established campsite campsite fire rings may not be allowed.

Established Campsite Camping

Camping in established campsites always means use of the existing fire ring or pit. The area around it is usually already cleared and the rocks or iron enclosure provides good protection against too much wind.


Dispersed Camping

Dispersed campers may have additional restrictions, such as no ground fires and mandated use of metal fire containers. Ash and charcoal dust can of course scar an area for decades. For example, the Anza Borrego park regulation is:

• Illegal ground fires are prohibited. Campfires must be kept inside a camp stove or in a metal container provided the camper with a bottom and sides.

In some areas, no fires are allowed at all except for your portable stoves and lanterns.

Use your good sense. I've been with groups where we've been disappointed by opting not to build a campfire due to existence of dried vegetation and windy conditions.


California Campfire Permit

• Free
• Requires watching a 2½ minute video and taking an 8-question quiz
• Main elements:
  • 10' diameter clearing around campfire
  • Fully put out fire using drown, stir, and feel method
• Signature accepts legal liability for fire suppression costs
• Good only for calendar year

Not just required for campfires, but for stoves and lanterns that utilize fire



Restrictions for Los Padres National Forest
Effective May 27, the following restrictions will be in effect:

• No open fires, campfires or charcoal fires will be permitted outside of developed recreation sites or designated Campfire Use Sites, even with a valid California Campfire Permit. Lanterns and portable stoves using gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel will be permitted, but only with a valid California Campfire Permit, which can be obtained free-of-charge at the Ready For Wildfire website. Forest visitors must clear all flammable material for five feet in all directions from their camp stove, have a shovel available, and ensure that a responsible person always attends the stove during use.
• Recreational target shooting is prohibited within Los Padres National Forest except for the Winchester Canyon Gun Club and Ojai Valley Gun Club that operate under special use permits.

Campfires are prohibited on National Forest System lands in the Santa Barbara front country due to the increasing fire danger and the potential threat to downslope communities. This prohibition will remain in effect through Feb 24, 2024.

Front country visitors possessing a valid CA Campfire Permit will be permitted to use portable lanterns or stoves that run on propane, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel.

A violation of this prohibition is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 for an individual or $10,000 for an organization, or imprisonment for not more than six months.


Bureau of Land Management Fire Prevention Order CA910-2020-001 California Year-round Fire Restrictions

Effective April 29, 2020 through December 31, 2025
Applies to all BLM-managed lands within California

Acts prohibited under this order:

Building, attending, maintaining or using a campfire, charcoal, coal or wood stove outside of a developed campground without the following criteria being met. A developed campground is one that has been designated, developed, and maintained by the BLM, which is posted as open for public use, and where campfires are contained within an existing pit or ring constructed with steel or rock and mortar. Criteria includes:

• a five-foot diameter area cleared to bare mineral soil and free of any overhead flammable materials in all directions around the campfire, and
• possession of a functioning round-point shovel, with an overall length of at least 35 inches that can be easily accessed within a reasonable amount of time in response to a fire ignition, and with a responsible adult in attendance. A responsible adult is defined as a person eighteen (18) years or older, who has been delegated authority and responsibility to make decisions, and to take actions to manage the safety and well-being of children [assigned to their care], and
• possession of a valid California Campfire Permit, available free at any BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and CalFire offices or online at www.readyforwildfire.org/permits/campfire-permit/.

Anyone who is found guilty of violating a fire prevention order may be fined not more than $100,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than 12 months, plus restitution for total fire suppression and damage costs.

Note: a shovel costs less than $100,000.

Building a Fire

The "fire triangle" below shows the essential elements of a fire: heat, fuel, and oxygen. Oxygen is of course freely available in the atmosphere. Fuel may be naturally sourced (e.g., gathering where legal) or purchased. Heat--for convenience--generally requires some kind of technology or man-made devices.

Have you ever tried to rub sticks together?

There are a number of styles of building a fire, but generally starting a fire requires an igniter (heat / spark source), tinder, kindling, and the main firewood / fuel. You use the igniter to ignite the tinder, which provides sufficient heat to cause the kindling to catch fire, which in turn provides sufficient heat to cause the firewood to catch fire. At this point, the fire is somewhat self-sustaining and as long as you feed in more firewood, it'll continue to burn.

Beyond Boy Scouts, I frankly haven't witnessed many fires that were built according to a rigorous plan or structure, though usually some haphazard version of tee pee or lean-to depending on what's available. The basic concepts are:

• heat rises
• smaller stuff on fire can start bigger stuff above it on fire

Fire Containers

Fire containers of course contain the fire, but also serve as a windbreak, allowing you to build the fire in the first place, keeping embers from blowing out, and keeping the fire from getting too much oxygen and burning out too quickly. In addition, the metal or stone surrounding the fire can not only block excessive heat but retain significant heat. The fire container separates the wood you're burning from the wood that will be burned later.

Wherever you go, you're most likely to have your campfire in some sort of container. This is obvious in established campgrounds where you usually have a picnic table, a fire ring, and a place to pitch your tent. You'll usually find regulations like:

At developed recreation sites the following are prohibited:

• Building, attending, maintaining, or using a fire outside of a fire ring provided by the Forest Service for such purpose or outside of a stove, grill or fireplace.

In dispersed camping, ground fires will scar the ground with ash and charcoal residue, and in most cases are not allowed.

The following metal fire ring is the kind you'll find in many established campsites. It has a folding grill. Not knowing how it has been used, I'm not sure I would ever use the grill with at least aluminum foil underneath my food.

If you are dispersed camping, you'll likely find a number of campfire rings made from stone. Use them instead of building another.

In Anza Borrego's Borrego Palm Canyon Campground, a few of the campsites (which I greatly prefer) have ramadas which contain a fireplace in the corner.

If a fire ring or pit is not available, you should bring your own. Here are a few examples.

This fire pit is super heavy and 36" in diameter. It would make a great choice if you were intending to visit an area many times, but is simply too big to bring along for trips. Solo Stoves range from 15" in diameter to 27". They have the reported nice feature of being virtually smokeless. A friend throws this old stainless washing machine drum into the back of his truck for trips. It works extremely well, perhaps due to the many ventilation holes. This is my current 2nd favorite since it folds down fairly small and "pop up" into a 2' x 2' fire pit. I mainly use it to contain ashes from charcoal Dutch oven cooking. My favorite "container" is this. It is 14" x 14" x 9" high. It provides a fair campfire experience using about 1 pound of propane per hour. I use this because this "fire pit" plus a 20-pound propane tank will provide campfires for about six people for around ten days, requiring much less space than the equivalent amount of firewood. The downside is that it does not smell like firewood and has a somewhat sooty smell, but does not emit any embers. Similar model used for some morning warmth.
Fireside Outdoor Ember Mat

Intended to catch embers that might drop or blow out of your fire pit. Not intended to provide direct fire surface.

Tools

Let's talk about some of the tools that are useful during fire making. Much of this will be my opinion. I'd like to hear yours.


I don't have a gas-powered chainsaw. I have a smallish 120VAC one for use around the house for when we had a few trees in the backyard. It made unbelievably quick work of stumps and logs around the house.

I can see how important one might be for preparing firewood or to quickly clear a log from a roadway. Does anyone bring a chainsaw on camping trips? A full-size axe might be a backup or replacement for a chainsaw. I always bring a 3/4 size axe, but have only used it on one occasion to try to collect firewood from a dead, fallen tree ... before switching to a saw. Picture for admiration purposes only. I always bring a saw like this. In my opinion, it does much of what an axe can do a little faster. I've mainly used it to cut segments off logs. Admittedly, the effort of sawing feels more sustained and tiring than swinging an axe, and isn't quite as fun. I've seen / read many people who rave about Silky saws in general and this "Katanaboy" in particular. My father gave me one of these when I was in Boy Scouts. It's perhaps a perfect hand axe. I once tested ten different "choppers" and this one came out of top. Its flat ground blade takes big bites out of wood. For most purposes, I believe this chops better than a hand axe. Due to the curved blade, it's not as easy to "baton" (see below) through wood if using it to split. 12" blade, 1/4" thick, almost flat grind. I'm not going to pay $330 to try this out, but the TOPS El Chete was designed to demolish wood as a chopper thanks to its heft and thick tang. Typical "bushcraft" knife of reasonable length. Could be used to baton while splitting wood. I always have an Estwing Fireside Friend with me when I camp. It does double duty as a splitting maul on softer woods and as a sledge hammer when using a "bomb" or Kindling Cracker (below). While the 3.5 pound head is a little light, it works well enough. We've talked about the splitting bomb (there are a number of manufacturers) on a few nets. It is a "must have" if you will be splitting any large diameter wood. I don't believe I've ever failed at splitting anything with one of these, given enough strikes, though gnarly, knotty logs can be tough. A heavier sledge works best. These Kindling Crackers work great for splitting wood. As the name implies, it's used to make kindling. There are two sizes: 1) 12" tall with 6.5" inside ring diameter, 2) 17" tall with 9" inside ring diameter.

It was designed to be a safe way to split wood, avoiding off-center hits and swinging an axe or maul blade while holding wood. It's difficult to get your hand near the blade. Despite its size and weight, I will always take it if there's any wood splitting necessary in camp. Heavy hand sledge for wood bomb. Make do with the Estwing Fireside Friend, though this would work better. Kellam Billhooks, made in Finland, are razor sharp. Works better than an axe for lopping off small branches. Makes quick work when making feather sticks (below) or reducing wood to small chips for tinder. Blade is too thin to baton. Just mentioning this. Never used one in the "wild" though it seems a good way to move logs around. Does anyone have any experience using one? If you can gather wood, these are indispensable. They allow you to gather much more wood than your could holding it in your arms, and they don't take up any space. If you enjoy managing your campfire, these allow you to reach in and turn over and move logs that have burned on one side or end but not much on the other. This Cold Steel Trench Shovel is a longer-handled version of Cold Steel's "Special Forces" shovel. While 10" longer than the original shovel, it is unfortunately still only 30" in length and the point may not be rounded enough for the BLM.
Techniques

"Batoning" is a way of splitting wood where the blade is positioned above the end of wood and driven with a baton (usually another piece of firewood) along the grain lengthwise until the wood splits. It's almost like an inverse Kindling Cracker, and I suspect safer than swinging an axe trying to hit the possibly small target presented by the end of the wood.

It can be down with just about any knife that is longer than the wood is wide, where subsequent strikes hit the exposed part of the blade as the picture shows. A feather stick (sometimes called fuzz stick) is created by slicing partway into a piece of wood, leaving the "flakes" still attaches to the wood. The thinner the flakes are made, the easier they are to ignite. It's essentially a combination of tinder (the flakes) with kindling (the main shaft of wood). These are fun to make, though in my opinion, it's easier to take less care and cut the thin flakes all the way off. They can then be used in a pile under your kindling.

Igniters, Tinder, Kindling, and Firewood

Looking back at the fire triangle, oxygen is already provided, so we've got to provide heat and fuel. The initial heat comes in the form of a handmade device, an igniter, which we'll take a look at momentarily.

Wood ignites at a temperature of 390 to 500° Fahrenheit, and then burns at approximately 600 to 1700° Fahrenheit or more, both temperatures depending on the type of wood, moisture content, and amount of available oxygen. Pine can burn as low as 660° while oak burns closer to 1700°.

We generally break down the material used in fires into three categories: tinder, kindling, and fuel (firewood). While it may be possible to start a big oak log on fire with a single spark (not talking about lightning), we all know better.

The igniter needs to provide sufficient intensity and duration of heat to cause the kindling to ignite and start to burn.


Igniters

This is the kind of igniter that works fine for gas and liquid fuel stoves, and it's what I use for my propane stove. However, the spark is very short in duration and is barely more than what you'd get from a static electricity shock. It might start toilet paper on fire (but I don't have time to check). So, keep one with your stove, but it's not useful for starting campfire.
The ferrocerium rod is a staple of "survival kids". When scraped with a piece of steel, it creates small fragments and enough friction heat to ignite them, due to ceriums's low ignition temperature of 338°F. The resulting hot sparks can reach 6,000°F. Such a rod might be good nearly indefinitely, for thousands if not tens of thousands of uses.

I have never used a ferrocerium rod to start a fire while camping, but always keep a few in handy as backup in case I run out of other ignition sources. That being said, in using them at home, they are very effective at creating a shower of sparks. I find the longer and thicker rods easier to use, though a small one such as below works fine.
One problem with ferrocerium is that it can corrode. In preparing for this net, I looked at a few old partially used rods and noticed that they were surrounded with powder. The surface was quite corroded as the picture attests. I did a bit of research and found that it's a good practice to coat any scraped part of your rod with wax, nail polish, or vaseline while it's in storage. This prevents the bare surface from oxidizing.
My current favorite igniter is the plasma lighter. They are charged usually via USB and good for many tens to hundreds of uses before being recharged, then many more. Typical prices are $15 to $20.

A stepped-up high voltage (note: USB is only 5V) creates an arc of charged plasma. The heat of the plasma, around 1800°F, can be used to ignite anything combustible that fits between their electrodes.

The weakness of these lighters is the sometimes odd angle that must be used at to get material between the electrodes. Various lighters have their electrodes at different orientations.

I've been able to ignite every kind of tinder with a plasma lighter. They are of course reuseable. The internal battery no doubt fails after some number of recharges.

Following are a few different types.
These are handy when you're igniting gas or an accelerant and you're not certain of the "blast radius".
Everyone is familiar with the following lighters and torches.

Not much to say about the old Zippo "windpoof". I suspect they're popular among some people, but I've never owned one. They require maintenance, using a wick, lighter fluid, and a "flint". Butane lighters such as those made by BIC are ubiquitous. They're cheap, disposable, and fun to throw in campfires. Just kidding.

They're probably the easiest way to start a fire.

There are many butane lighters that are refillable rather than disposable. I keep a few BIC lighters in my vehicle and camping boxes.
If you need something bigger, want to avoid messing with tinder, and go directly to igniting kindling, a butane torch will provide the necessary heat and duration. Propane torch attachments also work fine. I keep a propane torch attachment in m camping boxes.
Matches come in a wide variety. As a backup to a backup, I carry one of these in my camping boxes.

Does anyone still use matches to start campfires?
Does anyone recommend any favorite igniters that are not listed above?


Tinder / Fire Starters

Tinder, small diameter, easily combustible fuel, can often be gathered or made. Dry pine needles work great, though burn out very quickly.

My favorite tinder is made by holding a piece of firewood vertically, then using almost glancing blows with a blade (knife, hatchet, kukri, billhook) to shave off flat pieces from 1/16" to 1/8" in thickness. Provided your wood is at all dry, these when piled up will ignite any kindling.

Still, there are many fire starters available. I've acquired these over the years and some are worth mentioning.


This is the common magnesium fire starter which most of you might have stashed away. You scrape off shavings of magnesium into a little pile, then strike the embedded ferrocerium rod to ignite the magnesium. Magnesium burns at around 5,000°F.

I consider this a "pre-tinder". I've always found magnesium bars hard to scrape off, and then difficult to get shavingsinto a nice pile such that I could direct sparks from the rod into it, and then in turn ignite your real tinder. The magnesium shavings burn out very quickly. It works, but I think there are better alternatives, though perhaps none so compact. Getting a bunch of magnesium shavings ($10) avoids the difficultly of scraping, and provides a large quantity and little longer burning time. These ignite easily with almost anything from matches to plasma lighter. My main issue is that the burning time is still fairly short and may be insufficient to get your tinder lit. These Baddest Bee Fire Fuses represent a variety of fire starters that are material soaked in wax (beeswax or paraffin). These are easy to ignite if you have a flame source, or can be ignited by sparks if you spread out one end into individual filaments. They'll burn for many minutes, allowing other tinder or smaller kindling to catch fire. Another class of fire starters are translucent white hexamine cubes. I had some sitting in a box for twenty years, pulled one out, struck a ferrocerium rod, and the cube ignited immediately. These burn at 1300°F and can last five plus minutes, though the flames stay right around the cube.

Esbit makes small camping stoves that can be used to boil water or heat food.

While the box doesn't describe the chemical nature of the cubes, Weber makes something similar for starting fires and charcoal.

Note: the fumes are toxic.
Hexamine (Hexamethylethylenetetramine) This is essentially a bag of cedar (low ignition temperature) chips soaked in wax. Work great, but bulky.
Lightning Nuggets are my favorite fire starters. The "nugget" is a compressed half ball made from pitchy pinewood held together by food grade wax. You place them round side down and light the edge. The ball will burn for 7 minutes with flame rising to 4".

These are great for starting a campfire or for starting charcoal within a chimney. I keep a handful of these in my charcoal box. These can be ignited using a ferrocerium rod if you break apart the edge before igniting.
A tried and true fire starter, is the petroleum-jelly-soaked cotton ball one of the best?

I've made a number of these by coating cotton balls in room-temperature petroleum jelly, then working the jelly throughout with my fingers. Note: It never occurred to me to heat the jelly to make it liquid (picture below), then just dip the cotton balls in. You must be very careful when heating any potentially flammable substance (petroleum jelly, paraffin, beeswax) over direct heat since it can readily combust. Better to use a double boiler.

I took a petroleum jelly cotton ball that I made perhaps twenty years ago out of its tin, then hit it with some ferrocerium sparks. It ignited immediately. Petroleum jelly itself does not burn, but when heated to boiling, the resulting gas burns. A cotton ball by itself burns in seconds, while a petroleum jelly cotton ball gives off a good flame while burning for up to five minutes.

These are probably equivalent to hexamine in size, flammability, and heat output. The hexamine cubes are dry. which jelly isn't.
Kindling

Kindling is the mid-sized material that is intended to be fairly easily combustible when in the presence of burning tinder. For a very small fire, the slow introduction of only kindling might provide a satisfactory experience, but it's mainly intended to start the main firewood.

Kindling will sometimes come in the box that firewood is purchased in. In my opinion, it can easily be made by successively splitting the straighter pieces of firewood until they're about the diameter of a thumb.

Commercially available "fatwood" kindling made from resinous pine.
Oxygen Tools

On occasion, providing extra oxygen to a starting fire can help greatly. I'm sure everyone has blown on a fire to help it get going. This "bellows" provides a bit of distance between your lips and the fire.

This provides quick a bit of air, and could be used to help start a fire. Here's a short video of using an air mattress pump to help some moist charcoal get started.

MoistCharcoal.jpg (51.09 KiB) Viewed 787 times

Fuel (Fire Wood)

Purchase or gather as available. Many (most?) areas discourage the gathering of dead or downed vegetation for use in fires. Many (most?) locations discourage or prohibit the use of firewood that is not obtained locally due to the possible introduction of invasive pests and diseases.

From the National Forest Service:

Do not carry firewood long distances. Burn it where you buy it!

So, if you want a campfire, better save some space on your roof rack or inside your vehicle and purchase locally if you can't gather.

Putting Out Fires

The typical way (California Campfire Permit-approved) is to let the fire burn down, drown it with water, use a (round point!) shovel (35" long!) to mix the water and ashes, then check for any hotspots using your hand at a distance. Pour more water on the hotspots and stir it again.


Fireside Outdoor Campfire Defender

Can be used to smother your fire and prevent embers from blowing out of fire pit. Vent can be opened to allow some oxygen to enter, to keep your fire from dying completely.

Product Spotlight: Leatherman Signal
MSRP $130 (same as Amazon price)
Included Tools:

1. Needlenose Pliers
2. Regular Pliers
3. Premium Replaceable Wire Cutters
4. Premium Replaceable Hard-wire Cutters
5. Wire Stripper
6. 420HC Combo Knife
7. Saw
8. Hammer
9. Awl w/ Thread Loop
10. Can Opener
11. Bottle Opener
12. 1/4” Hex Bit Drive
13. Bit Driver
14. 1/4" Box Wrench
15. Carabiner
16. 3/16" Box Wrench
17. Safety Whistle
18. Ferrocerium Rod - removable for use with blade, attached to whistle
19. Diamond-coated Sharpener

• CLOSED LENGTH: 4.5 in | 11.43 cm
• OPEN LENGTH: 6.75 in | 17.14 cm
• BLADE LENGTH: 2.73 in | 6.93 cm
• WEIGHT: 7.5 oz | 212.6 g
• WIDTH: 1.5 in | 3.8 cm
• OVERALL THICKNESS: 0.63 in | 1.6 cm

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John - KN6VL

Bruce - KD6GCO