How to Build a Survival Fire

Wilderness survival demands a few essential skills. Procuring water and food, building a proper shelter and fire craft must all be mastered if you expect to survive in the wilderness. Building a fire keeps you warm, allows you to cook your food, sterilize your water and keeps up your morale. There are many ways to build a survival fire. The crossed fire method is one where you dig crossed trenches under your fire pit to allow the breezes to feed your fire the oxygen it needs to help it burn hotter to keep you warmer.

Things You'll Need

  • Survival knife
  • Tinder
  • Firewood
  • Magnesium fire starter
  • Knife
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Brush any leaves or debris away from your fire sight with your foot. Dig a trench in the bare soil with your survival knife. Make the trench two inches deep, two inches wide and 12 inches long. Make a second trench that crosses the middle of the first to form a cross. Make your second trench the same size as the first.

    • 2

      Place a large handful of tinder into the center junction of the trenches. Scrape off a teaspoon of shavings from your magnesium fire starter with the blade of your knife. Place the shavings onto the tinder. Hold the fire starter over the shavings and tinder. Scrape the blade of your knife hard across the magnesium to throw sparks onto the shavings. Allow the sparks to ignite the shavings which will set fire to the tinder.

    • 3

      Build a pyramid of small twigs fro your firewood pile on top of the burning tinder. Allow the flames to build up and set fire to the twigs above. Slowly add larger and larger pieces of wood to the stack to build up your fire to the desired size. Do not cover the entire width of the trenches with firewood. Leave a couple of inches of space between the wood and each end of the cross to maintain the breezeways that feed the fire with air.