Types of fire

Caterpillar fire

This type of fire is great if you have steady wind direction, and there are no overhead trees, logs are placed on top of each other with a slight overhang that is in the fire, using green wood to support and hold the position.

The fire will gradually burn down the length of the logs, until there is no fuel left.

Indian fire

A traditional fire used when conditions are not the best, you will not have perfect cutting instruments, a great deal of wood or tinder and, but you do have access to small sapling trees and some stones.

Create a platform wit the stones as well as a back barrier from the wind if possible, lay the saplings down in a star shape and create a small hot fire in the centre, gradually moving the stars inward as the fuel is consumed.

Winter fire

A winter should generally have a large stone at the back, with more stones layered around the sides to create a bed, where the back stone is the pillow, you can lay thin pieces of wood vertically between the stones and 2 lay across the stones horizontally.

This type of fire burns for a long time and gives off a low heat, which radiates into the stones, perfect for the winter months.

Hunters fire

These are my favourite type of fires, great for in the winter as they generate a lot of heat, and have different “spots” for different uses, such as cooking, general heating and areas for maintaining heated food in colder spots.

You should lay 2 hardwood logs meeting at a point to create a V shape.

Create a grill from green woods across the gap in the logs, criss cross dry wood on top of the green grill and light the fire, the coals from the fire will fall between the gaps and create a hot area at the peak of the triangle with more sparse coals in the wider parts, create a heat differential.

For a long “night” fire, you can place large green logs on top of the grill and these logs will fall into the fire and catch as the grill is burnt away.

Platform fire

A platform of logs or rocks, anything that will not burn quickly can be used to raise the fire from the ground to get it off any wet ground, snow or mud.

Automatic fire

Dig a pit in the ground, layer the outside with a layer of small rocks, make sure that they are dry so they do not explode. Start a small fire at the bottom of the pit, and place some green logs vertically sticking out of the pit. This allows you to create an overhang to hang pots or other cooking equipment.

The logs will then gradually burn and fall into the fire to create a clear pit which can be easily filled to end the fire.

Signal fire

One that you will likely never use, but worth mentioning anyway. You need to create a small fire in the middle of some flat land, using some “smoke creating” logs/plastics/rubber (anything that creates a thick black smoke).

You should then create some interlocking layers of logs in a square surrounding the fire, with a grill of logs created on the top layer to block the smoke, this allows smoke to build up inside the cabin you have built, escaping gradually.