Alaska News

To build a fire -- in an Alaska rainstorm with only what's at hand

About 100 years ago, Jack London wrote a classic tale of a cheechako who tried and ultimately failed to get a fire started to keep himself from freezing in his short story, "To Build a Fire." The guy in the story makes some rudimentary mistakes, but how many of us would be thinking clearly when hypothermic and freezing at 50 below? For that matter, how good are most of us at starting a fire in a wood stove at home?

I have used wood fires as my only household heat the past 45 or 50 years. I can build you a fire in a hurry at home, but put me in the woods, with cold rain soaking everything, and it gets more challenging.

I recall a trip in Prince William Sound a few years back that Ray Akvik and I took. We spent 10 days in May in an open skiff cruising the Sound. It rained nine and a half of those days. We camped on shore every night and had decent fires. Most of the time we used gasoline to start them. Admittedly, gas can be dangerous to start a blaze with, but it was raining.

There are far better things than gasoline to start a fire with, though.The fact that we used our mixed outboard fuel to get our fire going illustrates the basic requirement of any firestarter. It must be readily available. The stuff you can buy in a sporting goods store will get a fire going, but how will you find it on the middle Yukon, a week into a rainy float trip?

Look around and use what is common around you.

Diesel fuel is a great firestarter down to about minus-40. But if it's colder, diesel can be tough to ignite. Sawdust soaked with diesel fuel will start a fire in a few minutes. But be aware that stove oil will destroy a plastic Ziploc bag pretty quickly. Put the diesel-saturated sawdust in tinfoil, then in the Ziploc.

Candles work very well. I like the little tea candles best, mostly because they are handy to use and carry.

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Methyl alcohol (gasline antifreeze) is best of all because it burns very hot and ignites at any temperature. It is easy to carry if you're truck camping, and there's another bonus: Methanol doesn't light explosively like gasoline.

A nice, stable blaze of reasonable size is ideal. But if you have wet wood, a big hot fire is necessary. Winter fires in a black spruce forest are the easiest to build successfully. Here's how:

1) Get a little witch hair fungus (the long black stuff that hangs from inside branches) and some of the very small, dry, dead branches from against the trunk of the spruce and carefully build a tiny stack -- witch hair at the bottom on a dry bed of moss or dirt.

2) One match will do it with no added cheaters.

3) Gradually add pencil-size dry sticks until the fire is crackling.

Coastal rain forests are more of a challenge. Try digging into old dead trees or a squirrel midden pile to find something dry.

Preparation is key. Don't light the first match until you are confident you have your fire base ready. Extras like fuel oil, methanol and candles won't help much if you are trying to start wet material.

The toughest place to get a decent fire going is alpine terrain, where fuel is limited and often damp. Dry, dead willows, juniper or mountain hemlock should have enough useable fuel around the bases to get things going. Most of the time, you need to cut into the center of the stick to find anything without moisture. Candles work well under these circumstances. A long taper will keep a concentrated flame on a singe point until the fuel is dry enough to ignite.

All the fire-making methods I've outlined require the same external source -- a match. Matches can be kept dry with toilet paper or a paper towel in a Ziploc. Good book matches work the best. Wooden strike matches fail pretty often. Waterproof matches have some value in emergency situations, but aren't necessary for day-to-day use.

But what if you don't have matches?

How many of us can start a fire without a match? Flint and steel? A couple of rocks struck together? A fire bow? I have tried them all. I'm lousy at all of them.

My only success has come with a fire bow, which is basically rubbing two sticks together. I can tell you that starting a fire with a bow takes lots of patience and the right materials. I recently tried some purchased hardwood. I used an African wood called wenge, which is extremely hard, and I got smoldering witches hair in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately there is no wenge growing along the Alaska Range.

I substituted fire-killed black spruce, a wood readily available in most of Alaska. The spruce also worked, but if my hands were cold and it were 50 below, by the time I might get a flame I'd be sweating anyway.

I can see why the Native people carried their fires with them.

Fires can be carried in a pouch made of green caribou hide with the hair on. The fire is reduced to a coal or two and wrapped very tightly in Sphagnum moss (the green fluffy stuff that grows everywhere in Alaska). When I was a kid, I got a fire to persist for a couple of days in moss wrapped in tinfoil.

In today's world, we don't need to carry a fire, but we all should know how to build one in a hurry. Don't get stuck out in the woods with a broken snowmobile and be reduced to burning the machine to stay warm. I rescued a couple of neophytes near Paxson once who did just that. They felt pretty chagrined when I showed up about the time the $7,000 machine finished smoldering!

Jack London may have used a little literary license to illustrate the point of his story, but his message is as clear today as it was 100 years ago. Use patience and care -- and think clearly before you try to start the fire that may mean the difference between a comfortable camp in the woods and a disaster.

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John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

Fire up: What’s your secret?

Leave a comment here to let us know what you've found to be the most effective way to start an outdoor fire when it's wet and cold.

John Schandelmeier

Outdoor opinion columnist John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest.

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