You´ll Need a Fire Ring

Don´t start a fire without first building a fire ring. There are a number of way of doing this. The most common is to place rocks in a 3 foot diameter or larger circle. Be sure to clear out the area immediately adjacent to the ring of rocks. Using your shovel, dig out the entire inside of the circle 2 inches deep and place the dirt on both the inside and the outside of the rock circle. You´ll need this dirt when it´s time to extinguish the fire. If rocks are not available, you will dig a 3 foot diameter hole it the ground approximately 6 inches deep. Again, keep the dirt for extinguishing the fire.

Under Wet Conditions

Several ways to start a fire under wet conditions:

1) Vehicle cigarette lighter.
2) Vehicle battery (wire and cloth).
3) Road flare.
4) Lighter fluid/Gasoline/Propane.

Each of these methods will get the flame going, but without kindling, it won´t be going for long. Be sure to gathering dry or near dry kindling before attempting to ignite the fire.

Proper way to douse a campfire.

Camping is better with a fire. So knowing how to douse a fire is an important camping skill. This is not something you can do in 5 minutes. It takes a little planning and care. During the last couple of hours in camp spend some time working the fire and especially the embers. With a shovel expose as many of the embers as you can. This exposure causes them to burn off faster. Once the embers look like they are out (they´re not!!!) cover them with the dirt you stored when you built the fire ring. Mix the dirt and ash well. When you think the fire is out (it´s not!!!) it´s time to douse the dirt and ash mixture with water. When car camping, it´s easy to have lots of water available. If you´re carrying the water on your body, that´s more difficult. Take your time and make sure the fire is completely out.