In arctic regions like those found here in Alaska, it is important to know how to survive in the winter. There are plenty of people who have perished due to not knowing how to use the land or not knowing what it takes to survive in the frigid cold of the arctic. One of the most important things you need to know is how to build a fire with what the land provides. Fortunately, the land is filled with flammable foliage, hence the high dangers of wildfires all year. I am not going to waste time talking about rubbing sticks together or using a flint and steel since others are more into teaching that type of skill. I would rather talk about the specific bits needed to get your fire going and keep it going. I suggest learning HOW to build a fire before learning how to use caveman tech to START one.
USES OF FIRE
This may seem obvious, but just think about how much we need fire in order to survive. We need it to melt snow, sterilize the water for drinking, stay warm into the night, see when there is no light, and cook food. There are other things that fire is good for as well such as drying clothes, drying more wood that may have gotten slightly wet, and signaling. Fire is probably the only thing in arctic survival that should be considered a MUST. You can have everything else, but if you do not have fire, you will likely die.
MATERIALS NEEDED
First thing you will need is a source of fire, which I will say needs to be a Bic lighter. Whether it is a normal size or the small pinky sized one, you need to have one. There is no reason to rub sticks together, getting in touch with your savage roots, when a Bic lighter survives laundry cycles only to reliably work right away.
Next thing you will need is wood and small/tiny dry foliage, which can take a while to gather, depending on your location. All of it needs to be as dry as possible to facilitate rapid ignition. I prefer crunchy, bone dry, and absolutely dead foliage. I find this type of stuff from low hanging Spruce branches, birch trees, and exposed dead/dry brush like dead and brown fireweed stems poking up through the snow. In my area of Alaska, I would use birch bark, dried grass, and fireweed stems because of how fast they catch fire and how hot they burn. You will want to gather enough so that you can get a fire going and get it really hot fast. I would say to collect at least enough birch bark to tightly pack a gallon plastic bag, if not more. It catches fast and burns just as fast, but is also able to endure getting wet.
After collecting tinder, you will want to gather/process your kindling. Think of this stuff as your next step from tinder. This stuff also should be bone dry and crunchy. You will want to gather sticks and branches about the thickness of your thumb. I recommend that you gather a generous amount of this because it will be needed to establish not only a fire platform, but will be needed to restart the fire if it starts dwindling.
As far as fuel is concerned, I would say that most of it will come from fallen trees. Fuel can generally be about the size of your wrist, and larger. If you have an axe or saw, your life will be much easier for gathering fuel. Start with the smaller stuff first and then work your way up from there. This will be what you will need to have the greatest supply of. However, depending on the climate, you may have to settle for just using a lot of kindling as a fuel for your fire.
If the time and environment support it, collect as much DRY wood as possible. Believe me when I say that wood goes fast at night alone in the arctic wild. It is commonly understood in the survival community that you must gather at least five times as much wood as you think will last the night. My recommendation is to have at least some fuel ready to go before starting the fire, but all of your kindling and tinder ready right away.
CONSTRUCTION & FIRE PROGRESSION
If you need a fire, you will want to have a good platform on which to build it. If it weren’t for the snow, you could easily just get your tinder going on the ground and build off of that. However, with snow on the ground, you will want to lay down a foundation so that the fire will not just fall into the snow and put itself out. Before building/assembling a foundation, it would be wise to dig down in the snow a bit and create a foot or two perimeter around your fire area. Even if you have only a couple inches of snow, you will want to build a platform and a perimeter because the heat of the fire will melt the snow and threaten to drown your fire.
The most common fire platform is made of thick green branches, or a few layers of smaller green branches that make a platform for the fire to stand on above the snow. Green branches would work best for this because they will take quite a lot of encouragement to catch fire. However, this is not always something you can acquire, so you will most likely just have to make a platform from a good amount of kindling. Make the platform a little longer and wider than you intend your fire to be. Eventually the platform will sink in the snow through the night, but it will help prevent the snow from eating your fire early on. On the other hand, if you are near a river with flowing water, and can somehow gather enough rocks from this river, it would be ideal to lay down a foundation of rocks that is larger than the platform. Ideally you should have enough rocks laid down so it buries the snow. You still need to make a perimeter, of course, but this will help suspend your fire and keep it much more safe from the snow.
Once you build your platform, I recommend assembling a kindling bundle or building a kindling frame for when your tinder is ignited. Some people prefer a linkin’ log or teepee design, but I usually just put a bundle of my kindling with some extra tinder on the fire in whatever fashion I need to get it to catch. I am a bit of a savage, but I have never failed to get/keep a fire going in this chaotic manner. I don't care for designer setups that take up unnecessary amounts of time when I could just get my fire going and add wood in the most efficient manner once lit.
After assembling your kindling bundle or initial arrangement, it is time to setup your tinder bundle and light it. For me, I bundle up my grass and fireweed stems, stretch it slightly so that air can get in the bundle and it will vent well. Many refer to it as building a fluffy birds nest.
After that, I ignite my tinder bundle and a good amount of birch bark. As the birch bark ignites and takes off, I feed the fire fast with little sticks and gradually feed it more and more.
As the fire gets hotter and bigger from all your kindling, you advance to burning fuel. I personally like making a linkin’ log style setup with my fuel to encourage it to burn and fall to the center, but also make it simple to add fuel. I recommend ensuring you have a good base of hot coals already established before starting to burn fuel. This will help your fuel catch faster, as well as act as a form of insurance if your fuel comes out to be too wet.
From here, you just keep growing the fire as needed, throwing on bigger pieces as you go. The biggest risk you take at night is your fire going out. There are plenty of ways to keep a fire going and make it somewhat self-feeding, but that can take a bit of time and work.
WRAP UP
In places like Alaska, it is not uncommon to see temperatures as low as -40 in the winter. If you get stuck outdoors in those temperatures, you will definitely want and need a nice hot fire to keep you from freezing to death. Starting a fire is nice, but it is equally important to know the simple art of maintaining and building on it. And if you are upset because I did not bring my loin cloth and talk about rubbing sticks together, it is because you should always have a Bic, even as a non-smoker.
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