Want to know how to keep a fire going during a camping trip? Are you trying to avoid the frustration of endlessly relighting your fire? Read on to discover the best way to keep a fire going.
It can be beyond frustrating when you attempt to light a fire only for it to die out almost instantly. In most cases, the fire may burn for approximately 10 minutes prior to dying out.
However, it can also immediately die out after it has been lit and either instance is highly irritating.
Therefore, if you are constantly tired by relighting your fire pit you should consider implementing the following measures in order to ensure that it keeps burning at all times.
Use Dry Wood
Even if your wood appears dry, it probably contains moisture without you realizing. Whether you are using oak, cherry, maple,
chestnut or elm wood makes no differences as all types of wood will absorb moisture. Usually, this isn’t too much of an issue.
However, if your firewood hasn’t been stored properly and contains an excess of moisture, then you may inherently struggle to keep your fire alight.
This is why it is highly recommended that you only use dry firewood which has a moisture content of less than 20% in order to ensure that your fire stays burning effectively.
Use Large Pieces Of Wood
Using large pieces of firewood can also ensure that your fire stays burning continuously as although these pieces of wood are harder to light when compared to smaller blocks of wood,
they’ll undoubtedly stay alight for long once they have been lit which will inherently generate more heat during the process.
You should therefore try to layer any small pieces of wood underneath much larger pieces as the smaller pieces should ignite the larger pieces in order to create a sustainable fire pit.
Shelter Your Fire Pit
Placing your fire pit away from the direction of the wind will inherently affect its ability to keep your flame going. If your fire is placed in an open environment, gusts of wind may extinguish it entirely.
Thus, you can prevent this from occurring if your fire is positioned next to a windbreak such as a sturdy wall.
Although, you should always ensure that your pit is positioned 10ft away from any material or surface that may be flammable itself as stray embers from the fire itself may cause a larger fire which is something that you most definitely don’t want to occur!
Dry Your Fire Pit
Drying your fire pit prior to using it will help to ensure that your fire is sustainable. You should do this by wiping dry the inside of your fire pit with a cloth or paper towel.
The moisture that can accumulate in your fire pit (especially if it is stored outdoors)
will prevent you from creating a sturdy and sustainable fire and any firewood that is placed inside will inherently become dampened by the moisture that is retained inside which will also make it difficult to light and remain alight.
It only takes a few minutes to clean your fire effectively and the results are definitely worth any effort that is involved in the process.
Let Your Wood Breathe
Your fire undoubtedly needs oxygen in order to remain lit and if you stack your firewood so much that it is unable to breathe, it will quickly die out.
This is because the fire will typically die out when it is smothered and there are several different ways that you will be able to position your firewood inside a fire pit without overdoing it.
The teepee method is the best way to do this as it involves arranging the fire pit in the shape of a V. The bottom center of the pit will stay open which will therefore allow enough oxygen to enter the pit and aerate the fire effectively.
As the pit heats up, the air will also help to ignite the remaining firewood. Stacking your wood in log cabin stacks is another method of ensuring that enough air is able to reach your firewood.
Be Aware Of Weather Conditions
You should pay particular attention to the weather conditions as nature can obviously hinder your chances to make a fire last for a long period of time.
When rain is forecast, you should probably postpone any fire-burning event as the high humidity can make it impossible to maintain a fire in the long term.
Waiting until the weather is clear and dry enough to light your pit will give you the best chance of maintaining your fire throughout the night.
Add Firewood
If you follow the above tips and discover that your fire is still going out. You will need to add additional firewood in order to keep it burning.
Continuing to resupply your fire with additional wood will help massively as any hot coals or embers will be able to reignite your firewood in order to keep your fire burning.
To conclude, you should always remember to arrange your firewood so that it doesn’t smother any embers of coals in your fire pit.
Whether you are using your fire to cook food or just to add a relaxing atmosphere to your environment, following the above suggestions will ensure that you are able to keep your fire burning during all seasons.
Clean your fire pit on a regular basis to remove any excess moisture that may have built up and you will stand a far better chance of being able to keep your fire burning successfully.
As with all things, perseverance is key and you should ultimately try to arrange your firewood in different ways in order to determine what the best way is to keep your fire alight.
Finding a place to store your fire pit where it is shielded from the direction of the wind will also help to ensure that your fire remains alight.
I didn’t know anything about the sport or camping, and I set off on my adventure with very little planning. As a result, I was cold and miserable for the entire trip, and I didn’t catch a single fish.
Once I learned the right way to do things, my experience became much better. So, that is what I am here to do for you. I want to teach as many people as possible about fishing and camping, so their first experience can be as amazing as they’re building it up in their heads.
So, come and learn about camping and fishing from me, and I guarantee that you will have an amazing time out in the Great Outdoors.
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