Fire

From Guides

Types of Fire

The fires commonly encoutered by outdoor people [surely someone can phrase that better!] can be categorised in many ways. Probably the most useful way to broadly group the fires that are intentionaly lit is into either Open Fires, fires in Portable Stoves or, for in between cases, Portable Fires (for example portable barbeques). For more information on unintentionally lit fires see Fire Safety.

Uses for Fires

Warmth

Probably the most obvious use for a fire is to keep people warm, or to warm them up.

Many types of open fire are suitable for this purpose, especially fires with many exposed hot coals or flames. Stoves can be used to provide warmth, though this would be a very inneficient use of the fuel under normal circumstances. A heat reflector can be constructed to get more warmth from a fire in certain circumstances.

Cooking

Fires can be used for cooking food. Nowadays, most people favour stoves as they take a lot less preparation, are cleaner, and are easier to control than open fires. Some people do however still enjoy a meal cooked over a traditional open fire occasionally!

Stoves and many types of open fire are specifically designed for cooking, for example the Microwave, T Fire, Star Fire, Long Fire, and Underground Fire (Rename if you know the 'correct' name).

Water Treatment

To kill almost all pathogens (disease causing organisms) in water, it should be brought to a rolling boil for at least one minute if at sea level, longer if higher; for heights above one mile, the water should be boiled for at least three minutes. This method is good for cleaning many 'natural' water sources. However, it does not remove most chemical pollutants from the water (in fact boiling water makes impurities stronger). For this reason avoid using this method alone on water near settled land, industry or agricultural land, especially for a prolonged period of time. Boiling does not make sea water safe to drink.

Most types of fire are well suited to this purpose, but a hotter fire will boil water faster.

Water purification advice reference site: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html

Emergency Signalling

Rubbish Disposal

Lighting Fires

Fire lighting, although seemingly a simple topic, it can be a surprisingly rich skill to master given the wide variety of relevant factors that can change in each situation.

A surprisingly large number of methods can be used to light a fire. For more information see the page on fire lighting.