How to Start a Fire with Your Firewood

Starting a fire is easy, as long as you know what you're doing, have the right products and plan accordingly. When you start a fire, make sure you have all your equipment ready, including your fire starters, matches or lighter, kindling, small logs, and big logs. It will also help to have some newspaper or cardboard to get the fire going. And, you should have some kind of poker or metal rod to move the logs around once the fire is going. Ensure that you have safety equipment on hand so that you can be prepared in any event.

5 Simple Steps for Starting a Fire

If you take these 5 simple steps for starting a fire, no matter your situation, you'll be onto a warm long-burning fire in no time.

1. Begin by laying down your base. Put one or two flat log on the base of your fireplace or firepit and lay in between them a bunch of crumpled up paper, single sheets work best. The flat log will eventually light once the fire is going and will save you some time later on when you have to stoke the fire. You can use newspaper or thin pieces of cardboard for this. Take about 4-6 pieces of crumpled paper and place them on top of your base. Take a few strips of cardboard and place them leaning against the crumpled paper.
2. Laying across the center of the crumpled paper and cardboard, you'll want to put in some kindling and lay your firestarter. A firestarter will light very easily and stay burning for a little while to help you get your fire going. As you lay your firestarter on top, ensure you have a sturdy base, as you will be laying wood on top of this. The flat piece of wood on the bottom will help keep your base sturdy, and you can support your base with larger strips of cardboard. You can also put some larger pieces of kindling against the base – but not too many – the fire needs oxygen to ignite and burn. Use 3 or fire pieces of kindling and lay them against the base in a teepee format.
3. Next you will want to build a log-cabin or teepee style structure for your fire. To build a log cabin style fire you will lay logs two by two, across the base and build rows on top of that. As you build higher, make sure you alternate the direction of the logs. So if you start with the logs going north and south, make sure the row above has logs going east and west. If you are building a teepee style fire, you will want to lay the logs in a cone shape, meeting at the center top part of the fire. Make sure to space your logs enough that they can help each other ignite, but allow room for airflow. Do not add all the logs to your fire at this point. You will add some logs once the fire begins to burn.
4. Now all you have to do is take your matches or lighter and light each piece of crumpled paper and the fire starter. Long matches make this process easier and are safest. Let the paper burn until it ignites the larger pieces of cardboard and then the kindling, and then the logs.
5. Once the fire starters burning, you can add oxygen to it by blowing on it, which will increase airflow and help the rest of the wood ignite. If you built it right, you won't have to mess with it too much until it's really burning. Then once you see your logs fully lit, you will want to add more logs to the fire, one by one, as to ensure air flow. As they ignite you can add a couple more logs until you have your desired fire size. Make sure not to pack the fire too tightly as it will suffocate it. Use your poker and not your hands to move logs around.

What to Keep in Mind When Starting a Fire

There are a things to keep in mind whenever you start a fire, whether that is in your at-home fireplace or your outdoor firepit. Firstly, safety is of the utmost importance. Always have a fire extinguisher handy. It should be an up to date fire extinguisher – not expired – and within reach. Never use lighter fluid, oil, or gas to stoke your fire. Not only are those items a safety hazard, but they also contain harmful chemicals that are bad for your health, bad for your home, and bad for your fireplace.

If you are starting a fire in your home fireplace or wood stove, always use dry hard wood. The minimum that dry wood will read out is 20% moisture content. You can measure moisture content using the hardwood function on a moisture meter. But, if you do not have a moisture meter, you can always run a simple test by banging two pieces of wood together and listening for the sound they create.

Kiln-dried wood will often have a moisture content well below 20% because the kiln-drying process is regulated and tested and normal intervals. Seasoned wood is going to be a lot more unpredictable.