How to Start a Fire With a Spark

Campers often enjoy sitting around a campfire, telling stories or roasting marshmallows. In some cases, campers even rely on a fire to cook their meals. In extreme situations, the ability to get a fire going may be the difference between life and death. While starting a fire can seem like a daunting task, anyone can light one so long as he has a spark and small pieces of burnable material.

Things You'll Need

  • Tinder
  • Char cloth
  • Flint
  • Steel
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Instructions

    • 1

      Gather tinder such as tree bark or twigs that are the length of your fingers. Smaller is better, particularly if the tinder is wet. Paper also burns well, as do leaves fallen from trees.

    • 2

      Place the tinder in a pile, out of the wind or rain. Place a char cloth -- a piece of cloth that's been made into charcoal -- in the tinder pile. If char cloth isn't available, gather several pieces of bark from a birch tree.

    • 3

      Create the spark so it touches the tinder and the char cloth or birch bark. To create a spark, rub a piece of steel and flint together. Continue creating a spark until the char cloth and tinder catches fire. If the tinder catches fire, but the fire goes out, blow softly on it to create flames.

    • 4

      Lay small sticks known as kindling over the burning tinder. Kindling is 12 inches or less in length, about about the diameter of your fingers. Lay the kindling over the tinder in a crisscross or tee-pee pattern, which allows oxygen to reach the flame. Add kindling until the fire burns on its own.

    • 5

      Lay firewood over the burning kindling in a crisscross or tee-pee pattern. The firewood provides the fire's fuel, and can be added at regular intervals to keep the fire burning. Firewood ranges in size from sticks you can fit your fingers around, to pieces of wood that weigh several pounds.