Fuel
Eventually you will get to the point where you can add large pieces of wood
to your fire. As always, work your way up slowly in terms of thickness. Wrist
and forearmthick wood is the most common type of fuel for survival fires,
but don’t hesitate to add larger pieces of split wood and even logs, as long as
you’ve got a sufficient amount of fuel available and a solid flame.
When selecting wood for fuel (or for any stage of building a fire, for
that matter), choose standing dead trees. They are far drier than anything
else you’ll find in the wild. Avoid wood that’s lying on the ground, because
it will have absorbed a fair bit of moisture from the ground.
Wood is your primary source of fuel, but there are other sources,
including animal droppings, dried grasses, and animal fats.
Animal droppings: Dried dung patties from cows, deer, moose, elephants,
rhinos, or other ungulates (grazing, grasseating animal) can be very good
for starting and maintaining fires. These are essentially concentrated plant
waste—the natural version of the starter logs and briquettes that are popu
lar these days. Animal dung doesn’t flame very well, but makes for excel
lent coals.
Dried grasses: If you don’t have much large fuel on hand but find your
self surrounded by grasslands, you can twist grass into tight bundles. By
increasing the density of the grass, you make it more woodlike. It will
burn quickly, though, so make sure you have lots on hand.
Animal fats: Chances are you won’t have much animal fat available, and
what extra you do have you will likely eat to stay alive. For years, however,
pioneers rendered animal fat such as whale blubber into fuel for their oil
lamps. Long before that, the Inuit people used rendered seal fat to fuel
their quuliit, the soapstone lamps in their igloos.
Maintaining Your Fire
BUILDING YOUR FIRE IS JUST THE FIRST STEP. The second is making sure it
doesn’t go out; otherwise, you will have to start again from scratch. The
(^108) | Survive!