Disaster Tip of the Week: Learn Several Methods for Starting a Fire

During a survival situation knowing how to start a fire can be the key difference in staying alive.

Fire is not just good for staying warm, boiling water and cooking food, but provides a great psychological boost.

If you have studied survival techniques and situations like I have you know that much of your survival also relies on your state of mind (I'll get more into this in an up coming post), and anything that can give you that edge including having a fire can improve your odds.

The method you use to start a fire, doesn't really matter as much s the success of actually starting one and there are many methods for doing so.

The one main point to take away from this post is to learn multiple methods, if you can practice them and stick to the ones that seem to work best for you.

The most obvious choice would be to have a reliable lighter or water proof matches but it is important to know what to do when these fail or if you are stuck without them.

Another interesting method is creating fire from forming clear ice into a lens, the best resource for this method the site Wilderness Survival Fire from Ice.

Comments

[Patrick Krupka]

I loved your fire starting post, and you had great video clips. I was also glad that you mentioned practice...I have worked with multiple fire starting methods over the years, and the key I've found to making any of them work is practice. There is no substitute for actually using the technique multiple times and refining your approach to what works well with your physical attributes and your environment.

Just like practicing a fire drill, or reviewing your family emergency plan, repitition is the key!

-Patrick Krupka, President
www.MyDisasterPlan.com

[Ken]

I couldn't agree with you more! check out http://survivaltek.com/?page_id=54 to see other innovative ways to make fire that could be helpful in an emergency.