The core four things for survival are shelter, water, camp fire, and food, these necessities are not always easily attainable in survivalist situations. Fire is often one of the of the most frustrating out of the core four when it comes to the environmental circumstances or your level of preparedness. If it’s cold and raining outside, fire could become your number one survival requirement. Don’t get caught in the rain without the right tools and knowledge to get you through.
There are many different things you can carry with you that are reliable for starting fires in wet conditions. If your lucky (or proactive) enough to have a lighter, you can use fire starter cubes, fire packets, fire paste, cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly, or even some drier lint from home.
But what if you don’t have a lighter?
Expert survivalists know that a lighter is useful, but it is limited to a certain amount of fuel, it is also subject to becoming useless in the rain. Strike fire starters are reliable in almost all conditions, a couple easy to carry starters are Ferro rods, Fire pistons, or even a Battery and steel wool. The most effective of these are Ferrocerium/Magnesium rods, some of the higher quality rods can spit sparks up to 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Check out this site for some excellent quality rods.
Preparedness is the first step to survival, aside from the fire starters you should also carry a large (and sharp) knife, as well as a fold-able saw to guarantee your successful fire.
Spite the rain, build fire
Step 1: Use your saw to collect large/medium sized branches, also scrape some off some large pieces of bark.
Step 2: Split the medium sized branches in half, then start splintering chips off of the inside. These chips will be your tinder and some of your kindling.
Step 3: Once you have gathered the wood for the fire, set up a cover using the large piece of bark and some twigs.
Step 4: Arrange your tinder and kindling in a small pile, if possible use a covered ground this could be an aluminum can cut in half, rocks, bark, or some type of cardboard.
Step 5: Use your fire starter to light the tinder underneath the cover, BE PATIENT. Starting a fire with wet materials can take some time.
Step 6: Once you have successfully lit the tinder start stacking more kindling and wood chips on top, until you finally place some larger wood pieces on top.
Step 7: Warm up and pat yourself on the back, you just started a fire in poor weather conditions
*All step by step pictures are from the video below
full video from the WoodsRunner1776 channel on Youtube
