Survival Fire

Besides the air your lungs need to breath, no other basic need in a survival situation will be more urgent or important than your body's core temperature. You can go days without water and weeks without food, but you could have a little as a few hours survive hypothermia or hyperthermia.

Fire is one of the three primary ways to maintain your core body temperature. Proper clothing and shelter from the elements are obviously a tremendous asset when it comes to safe guarding your core body temperature from the elements, but many survival situations leave us without the ideal clothing or shelter. In emergencies such as these where you find yourself inadequately dressed and/or shelter options are poor to non-existent (you simply can't find or create a proper shelter quickly enough), fire may be your best, fastest, or only chance to stay alive.

Learning how to create fire is a critical skill to learn not only because fire is such a great source of heat, but it is also a great source of light, allowing you to complete tasks in the dark. You can also cook and boil water over a fire, use fire to help create tools, and use fire to signal for help. Fire can also help you keep nocturnal predators at bay while you sleep at night. And fire can be a powerful psychological help as it is also terrific moral booster. Sure, your first concern should always be to your core body temperature, and fire is terrific for doing that job, but fire is far more than a way to keep warm. It is an invaluable multi-purpose tool.

Fire making can be a challenging skill to learn for some individuals, but if you truly learn just a few basics, it is a skill anyone can learn and gain confidence in their ability to create fire. There are fool-proof fire starting methods that absolutely anyone can use. Sure, fire bows and similar fire-making methods are really cool and impressive, but when you are in a real survival situation, the last thing you will care about it impressing anyone. You want tried and true dependable ways to start a fire easily and quickly so you can stay alive. You aren't going to care how the Native Americans did it.

To master the craft of survival fire, you need to start with a solid understanding of how fire truly works and realize that there are many ways to start a fire in almost any situation. All you need is a little bit of understanding, three ingredients and some patience. So what are the basics of fire?

Fire is nothing more than an exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant, typically facilitated by some sort of ignition, but not necessarily. Basically, the fuel is heated beyond it's flash point, thus causing the fuel to ignite and combust, or "catch fire".

As most of us know, fire requires three elements to burn (combustion): fuel , oxygen and a source of ignition or heat. That's basically it. Pretty simple recipe, right? Well, yes... but there are a few layers of sophistication in there too. Don't worry, nothing you won't be able to overcome, but we should take a closer look at them none the less.

Next : Survival Fire Fuel

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