In any survival situation you should make the biggest, hottest fire pos
sible, provided you build it safely and have plenty of fuel. I have spent many
cold and unpleasant nights huddled by a tiny fire trying to keep warm—but
only when I didn’t have a choice. Don’t waste your time thinking small when
you can go big: a big fire will kick the chill right out of you.
An emergency is no time to wax environmental and worry that you’re
burning too many trees. And the advantage of making a massive fire is that
once it gets going, you can burn almost anything, including big, punky
logs that smolder forever, which means you can reserve small, dry wood
for kindling.
During my plane crash survival experience in northern Ontario, I
made a fire that was eventually about 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m)
high. With a blaze that big and so much heat being generated, I was able to
sit against a nearby tree and fall asleep in the middle of a cold and snowy
winter—without a shelter! There’s little risk of waking up to find a fire this
size cold and dead, and in any case, the mounds of redhot coals sitting
there can easily be used to get it going again.
The other benefit of a big fire over a small one is that it takes much
more rain or snow to put it out. I’ve had fires going that were so hot they
continued to burn right through a downpour.
Believe it or not, a big fire requires less work and effort to maintain
than a small one. You simply need to add a few large pieces of wood every
once in a while to keep it roaring along. With a small fire, you’ll burn all the
small branches in the area to constantly feed its flames, and you’ll spend a
significant amount of your time and energy finding and collecting these
branches. On top of this, if you need to leave the fire for a while, you run
a real risk of it going out while you’re gone.
A pilot friend of mine once found himself stranded on a beach cov
ered with driftwood. He made a massive blaze that kept him warm until
rescue. It was the right thing to do.
Preparation
THE GREATEST ENEMY OF A SUCCESSFUL FIRE is your impatience. It is vital that
you are diligent in preparing your fire, though it may seem tedious.
(^104) | Survive!