How to Start a Fire in Wet Conditions

hey guys Brooke Whipple here welcome to my channel have you ever struggled with getting a fire started in wet conditions or maybe even getting a fire started at all well today I want to show you some tips and tricks to help you out stay tuned [Music] I was recently asked through email how do you start a fire to the dog but in your face sit down oh good screw it screw it was recently asked in an email how do you start a fire when it's wet she said I tried to start a fire when it was wet and I had no luck well I'll tell you what it rained and rained and rained last night is very very wet out here I want to show you how to start a fire when in conditions like this first thing I did is just clear out a spot I'm in a mixed hardwood forest here we have both deciduous and coniferous trees in this forest and let's get a fire started so we have a lot of white pines a lot of Oaks and what I'm going to be looking for you want to look for stuff that snaps like that and that's not even that good that's okay that's not bad you see these are just some dead downed branches here you want them to crack see how that's bending that's not that great we need different stuff the other thing I'm looking for if stuff that's not laying on the ground anything that's on the ground is gonna be really what no here's a dead branch and it's still hanging from the tree and it's got a bit of a snap to it I still feel like this is a bit damp too but I'm gonna use this for the base of my fire this is not bad hear that snap it's okay could be better I'm gonna just I'm just gonna lay these branches here I want to start my fire off the ground you can see how wet it is everything is very wet this doesn't even have any bark on it Oh hear that snap that's what we're looking for but when you find stuff like this it doesn't have bark on it that's gonna be nice and dry nice nice and snappy see this oh yeah that's nice dry wood all right besides some of this bigger stuff you want stuff that is this size I want a bunch of this and we want really really tiny stuff here to get our fire started dry as you can find found another one it's not too bad see the size difference here has what we're gonna start with and we'll move on to this size and you hear that snap that's what we're after usually on the bottom layers of a pine you're gonna find lots of dead stuff and that's what you need to get the base your fire going to be sustainable okay I think we have enough to get started so we've get we've got a nice little pile of materials here so I can show you how to start a fire now I don't yeah I didn't gather a lot of big stuff because we're just concerned about getting the fire started to be sustainable so there's only one thing missing from my equation that I'd really like to have and that is birch bark I look around this particular forest and I don't see one birch tree which is kind of unusual wait there's one right there nevermind we got parsh Park let's go get some yes I didn't think there was any here my go-to for starting fires it is the only thing I used in Mongolia on alone Season 5 for starting fires now this is not hurting the tree it's just these outer outer little layers that are that are loose and you know birch bark will burn even when it's wet so this is a perfect opportunity to show how good this stuff works well that is that's awesome good fine now that we've got this I've got enough material here to start a fire but let's put the scenario in place you either can't find birch bark you don't have any it's not in your region what do you do then because this is really the best thing for starting a fire as far as a natural material well I've got some goodies in my backpack that I want to show you got some goodies got a Ferro rod I got a lighter I've got these two mystery tins here that I want to talk about so I always have a Ferro rod with me and I always have a lighter lighter is the number one survival thing you can put in your pocket it's great to have a lighter this is what I also travel with I got my own little survival kit that I put together and it uh this is my homemade fire starter this is melted pitch with inner bark of cedar now in here I carry lots of just little essentials my own survival kit let me show you what's inside got two cotton balls and an alcohol pad got a little bit five feet of paracord with some duct tape have a Ferro rod with a striker 25 feet of fishing line two hooks and two sinkers a razor blade another alcohol prep pad and an emergency piece of birch bark now what I'm after in this kit right now that I want to talk about is this the cotton ball in alcohol pad if you're in a place where you can't find a natural fire starter like some birch bark or maybe the inner bark of cedar or some pitch always keep some cotton balls in your pocket and one of these cotton is extremely flammable of course I'm going to open up the fibers just like a fluffy little cloud watch what happens pretty much instant fire but it only gives you about 30 seconds of burn time which isn't that much so I'm gonna get out my other cotton ball now I'm gonna open up the alcohol pad I'm just gonna saturate it in the cotton ball now let's see what happens again instant fire this time we're going to get a burn time of about a minute and a half which is that's a good time to help feed this little fire and get it going the other method I would use is my own fire starter so let's give that a try still burnin now I'm gonna get out some of my own fire starter and see how that works go get flame and there's another way to get your fire started now let's move on to the birch bark and I want to show you how to start a fire with that and this time we're gonna do it for reals I do take my knife we're gonna scrape these scrapings right here from the birch bark we're basically trying to light dust on fire I want to scrape this stuff down so it'll light on fire wonderful shavings that's gonna be great catching a spark that's what I like the other thing you can do is take the real fine papery stuff just shred it with your fingers just shred it I want it as light as possible another thing you can do SWAT it up and let those shavings just kind of fall down on top of there whose shavings that's just wonderful stuff for starting fire well that dust and the shavings here that's good I'm gonna try to light this now I have this and I got my little sticks ready you got to be careful not to upset any of this let me use my knife and we got fire now you want to quickly take more birch bark put it on there if you want to keep this fire going and you get your little sticks start piling them on throw in more birch bark little sticks going once it starts going you got to work fast not out of the woods yet the other thing you have to be careful of it's not smothering your baby fire when it's just going I've seen that happen quite a bit for you just you see that flame and all of a sudden you're just like poof you put something on there it's too early it's so delicate yet hasn't had a chance to start burning on anything so now still I'm using this tiny tiny little stuff I'm not really out of the woods yet this isn't a great fire yes it's just so wet out here so it's gonna take a minute for it to take off did you hear that snap so what we're gonna do start putting bigger and bigger and bigger pieces on usually if I can get a fires sustained for about two minutes fire is gonna be okay just kind of tp'ing up more pieces letting this thing get established but it's off the ground and that's a good thing definitely getting somewhere now I'm feeling good about this now you start putting some of this bigger dryer stuff on and it'll start to take off nice well guys that's gonna do it for me I hope you learned something today maybe the one little new take away a few different ways to start a fire and hopefully that's helpful on choosing wood and and maybe keeping some stuff in your backpack that would be super helpful no matter where you are in any conditions to help you start a fire if you liked this video give it a thumbs up I'd love to hear your comments below and if this is your first time here I'd love to have you subscribe hit that bud right there oh and ring the bells you don't miss any new videos guys thanks so much for joining me this girl Nords she gone oh [Music] and don't forget to get outside and get happy

Channel: Girl in the Woods

Views: 151,751

Keywords: how to start a fire, survival fire, survival skills, how to build a fire, survival tips, fire starting, ferro rod, making fire, fire in rain, fire building, survival techniques, survival skills (tv genre), fire (quotation subject), wet wood, how to make fire without matches or a lighter, survival tips and tricks, survival skills primitive, survival skills wilderness, how to make fire, wilderness survival, survival tips for the woods, survival tips for kids

Id: vuGRyknlVUY

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 10 2018