In a survival situation such a a zombie apocalypse once the gas and electric has been cut off, you
have ran out
of gas stoves or have no generators; an open fire may be your only
means of
cooking and heating. This can be a tiresome chore or
wonderful fun depending on how
prepared you are and your fire building knowledge. Preparation is
key with
fires. You never want to be in the position when you do not have a
flint n
striker, match or lighter.
Building a fire to cook on may not be as simple
as you
think, you need to take all things into consideration such as the
weather, it
may be sunny today but has it been raining for the last few weeks
are the
surrounding trees and ground wet.
Wet wood will smoke this could draw attention from zombies
or perhaps
even other survivors who may be interested in stealing your food
or worse! How
windy is it? A mild wind is great to start your fire but a strong
wind will
burn through you wood quicker than expected and can carry embers
away.
You will need three types of wood to build a sucessfull fire for cooking or heating.
- Tinder- cotton wool, dry leaves, straw, feathers, paper
- Kindling- Small sticks easy to light
- Fuel- larger sticks and logs to keep the fire going
Fire building is one of my most favourite
things, I always
wanted to help dad with his garden fires and help mum fill the log
burner at
night time, for the past 8 years I have built fires for a living,
running
firewalking events to raise fund for charity. I have had to build
safe fires in
all weather conditions with a variety of wood and a whole heap of
other challenges
thrown in for good measure so here are my fire building tips to
get you
started.
- Always carry a flint and stricker, matches and lighter.
- Use your flint where possible and save your matches and lighter.
- Gather all your materials before you start to light your kindling.
- Never leave a fire unattended
- Always make sure your fire is fully out
- Collect a variety of woods, kindling, sticks, branches and logs
- Once you have settled think ahead, begin a wood store and start drying your wood in advance
- Use your imagination- cotton wool, old clothes, feathers you have plucked from a meal, labels from tinned foods, straw etc are perfect kindling for starting fires in poor weather
- Never burn plastic or toxic materials on a fire you will be cooking on.
- Only build a fire as big as you need it, do not waste rescources.
- keep water, soil or sand near by so you cant put the fire out fast.
- if you have damp/wet wood leave it next to your fire to dry out.
Many people choose to build a star fire so i will add some photographs of those at a later date, Below are two of my most used fire set ups for outdoor cooking,
Layering the wood in a cross hatch allows plenty of air to flow through the fire and plenty of little pockets to shove paper or rags etc This method can be used to lift the fire off ground so is good for damp areas
Larger logs can be placed on once the fire has caught.
This fire can be built as high or low as you require and is easily moved around for ember distribution.
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Starting with small sticks and building up in size layer the sticks in a tipee shape, filling the gaps with any kindling you have.
As you can see this fire has been built usuing feathers for tinder from the pheasant i was about to cook.
Straw has been added as extra tinder to the fire and the logs at the back in
place to dry out while our fire is burning.
I always prefer to lay tinder first, add kindling with larger sticks and then light from the centre, this way you can let the fire burn for a few minuets without getting a face full of smoke until you are ready to add your larger wood.
There are other fire methods that i will share with you once i have taken some better photographs but these re the two i use most often.
Email- tzsfb@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter- @zombiefoodbible
Loving your blog so far, it's really interesting. Xx
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