How do I start a campfire using lighter fluid?
I’m going camping tomorrow and I need to know how to start a fire.
I will be using lighter fluid. My cousin told me to get some logs, put a little bit of lighter fluid on them and then toss is a small burning piece of paper. I thought I’d ask on here since my cousin is a complete idiot and it goes against my better judgement to trust him xD
Comments (7)
Start by putting waded up papers under some twigs, about 8 sheets of notebook paper and enough twigs to build the pile about 1 ft high. Leave a small piece of paper sticking out so it can be lit and the fire will spread to the rest of the paper. Then it’ll start the twigs on fire. Then you can put larger branches on your fire. Just leave the lighter fluid in the car, don’t really need it.
Use a branch to rake the area around where you want your fire, rake down to the dirt, to help prevent the fire from spreading. You really don’t want to wake up in the middle of a forest fire
He’s right
spray a little on the wood, light it and once there is fire you can spray more but be far away and dont hold it for long or you will blow up
um get a glass bottle and pure all the fluid in to the bottle then you wana put a cloth on the end of the bottle and then lite the cloth,,after …smash the bottle on the the fire wood and this would work…l did this it worked good..
Gather up plenty of small dried twigs and dried leaves. This is what is called kindling. You need about a cereal bowl full. Put some paper (about 1-2 sq ft) crumpled up at the base of the fire. Then pile on your kindling. Then place slightly larger diameter twigs and branches, then finally small logs. Light the paper, you won’t need lighter fluid at all. If all of the material is dry, it will light. You need to build up from small pieces of burning material up to the larger log.
The problem with lighter fluid is it vaporizes quickly and burn out too soon. If you insist on using a starting fluid, use charcoal starting fluid. It burns slower and longer to get you a better chance of starting the fire.
Please adhere to local fire codes. The fines are expensive if you start a camp fire where they are not permitted.
Ok, I like a good joke response as much as the next gal, but don’t listen to any of these! There is no way around a well built fire starting with paper (or dry leaves, dry moss) under kindling (wood split down into pieces the size of your little finger, then small pieces of wood.
If you insist on lighter fluid, and aren’t worried about the inside of your pack or trunk smelling like a refinery, you still need the kindling. Wet one or two pieces pile more dry pieces on top, then continue as above. But there’s nothing like watching a properly built fire start from a small flame in paper moss and slowly grow.
Your instinct is right
Seriously, unless you know how to do it or want to spend a few weeks in intensive care, never ever handle inflammable liquids around an open fire. Yes, there are people who did this. Yes, most of the time nothing much happens. Unfortunately, when things go wrong (and I didn’t use ‘if’ for a reason here), they go wrong dramatically.
For one thing – you’re in the US? From what I heard (didn’t follow it too closely) you’re experiencing at hot and dry summer? In which case it would be at least a very bad idea (and at most the trigger for a catastrophe) to start an open fire anywhere outside.
That aside – if you do have a safe place for your fire, you’ll need some dry wood and a small axe or a sharp knife. Or you might cheat and bring a few fire starters (just a bunch of wood shavings covered in paraffin) – they burn longer and more reliable than lighter fluid and won’t explode and cover you in burning fluid, no matter what you do.
Use the hatchet/axe/knife to create some small wood pieces and shavings (a solid handful should be sufficient, if the wood is dry enough), put them in the center of your fire pit (or instead, use the fire starter there), then place more bits of wood (not more than a foot long and a couple of inches thick) over them in the shape of a tipi. The tipi should have enough holes for the air to blow through and be sufficiently close to your tinder/fir starter to catch fire. Then light your tinder/fire starter and wait for the fire to spread to that ‘tipi’ before adding any more wood. It takes some patience and experience, so don’t worry if you don’t succeed on the first try (although it’s supposedly a scout challenge to light an outdoor fire with a single match – increased difficulty would be to use wet wood).