Fire I
In a survival situation in cold areas, our lives may depend on our ability to start and maintain a fire. Without going to such extremes, we need fire to dry off, warm, to signal to rescuers and cooking eliminates the germs and parasites in our food.
Also, as hikers, we may be tempted to sit beside a campfire under the stars. In this case you must take into account the laws governing these practices in your country. In Spain, and especially in Galicia, this practice is prohibited during the warmer months and severely penalized.
In any case, do not forget that a fire is very dangerous, you must follow all safety rules:
- Do not make fires larger than necessary, are more difficult to control and maintain.
- Remove twigs and combustible materials within a radius of two or three meters around the fire.
- Do not do it around the bushes or low branches
- Be always close to a bucket or other container with water and / or leafy branch to turn it off quickly if necessary.
must always carry in your backpack or luggage, especially if we are to cross inhospitable areas, a lighter and / or matches in a waterproof container (a box of photo reel, for example. He has also scrapers) or waterproof (with nail polish or paraffin). If we do, our chances of survival increase and not have to worry about making fire with improvised means.
Prepare, start and keep the fire
First of all we must decide where you will place, paying attention to wind and vegetation, and site preparation by removing branches, herbs, etc.
is a good idea to dig a hole about 10 to 15 cm and surround it with stones to hold the stake in it. When you rid the camp, we will cover the ashes with the land we took, we will return the stones to their site and leave everything so that nobody can notice that we have been there. (This rule is good if we follow both fire or not).
must find the combustible material: dried branches of different thicknesses, the most petite to turn and to keep it thicker. Not be difficult to find in woodlands and dry weather. Floods build branches in the river banks and occasionally make a real reef. The lower branches of trees are often dry and break easily. In wet weather we should look into the recesses of snags, which provide well-rotted wood burning in areas sheltered by rocks, roads, caves. If it has not rained too much, perhaps we simply husking dry wood wet legs. If not, we will have to take the thick stems and cut into lengthwise pieces to dry wood chips to obtain. Wet wood will dry near the fire.
To light the fire we will use the finest wood top will have in a "teepee" or "shed" with the help of a rock or a log for good air circulation and swelling fast. Above the thin wood will be adding thicker. If you do not have enough fine wood chips can do the thickest with the help of our knife.
On the basis of "teepee" or "shed" we will put the "punk", which is the flammable material to turn. Consist of leaves, dry grass, twigs, pine conifers, its leaves or needles, resin. The rotten wood is a good tinder in wet weather, it is usually easier to pull the outer parts of the trunks to reach the dry inland areas. Some nuts, like walnuts, have an oil that makes them flammable and burn slowly. Especially useful is the birch bark cut into strips, then ignites quickly and burns slowly and with good flame. You can even make a makeshift torch by winding a strip of bark to a stick.
In places where wood is not the man turns to other fuels. In the deserts burning camel dung and in the polar regions, the fat of seals and other animals. Types of wood
Not all burn like firewood, emit the same heat and flames, they form a lasting embers. Each wood has its own characteristics. Sauri Alan describes in his book "The Self-Sufficient Life - Ed Blume" the characteristics of the firings of the most common trees in this way:
"Leñas harsh: Dan low flame, but its slow and prolonged heat makes them excellent for cooking and heating.
Maple: Well, good flame
Carpe: Excellent fuel, flame, good grilled
Fresno: Well, good coal, heat
Hague: Good, good coal, called clear
Olivo: Excellent, long-lasting embers
Olmo: Strong heat, burning slowly
False Acacia: Good, bad coals, very chisporreteante
Oak: Well (also for charcoal) is consumed slowly turns black and charred.
Leñas tender: The flames quickly consumed continuously, are, therefore, excellent wood for turning or illuminate.
Birch burns well and quickly, clear flames. To light and light wood
Alamo: Mediocre
Aliso: Burns well and quickly
Hazel: Wood to start
Castaño: Low heat, sparks fires
Chestnut: Bad firewood
Majuelo: Burns well and fast but is green banana
: Mediocre and noisy
Sauce: Llamas clear and vivid, light wood for Elder
Firewood small to turn
Tilo: Mediocre
resinous Leñas: Its branches, hardwood is a better fuel than its trunk, wood earliest . Burn with a flame, but short-lived. A often give off a strong smoke.
Fir: flames, smoky
Larch Medium, crackling, good coal
Picea: Heat quickly, good flames, coals
short Pino: Heat and flames, short-lived. The cones are great for lighting the fire. "
Fire
improvised methods
It is best not to commit the blunder of not taking a reserve matches or a lighter. But if we are without these conventional means to light a fire there are other systems improvised a simple and effective and more complicated if we do not practice. In these cases it is especially important to have prepared enough tinder (Grass dry leaves etc. well compacted so that the coals are spread easily) and fine and dry wood to avoid wasting a flame that might have cost us much effort to achieve. Gently blow is usually effective when the first red dot to fan the flame. The methods are:
A magnifying lenses or lenses of a camera, binoculars or certain glasses are a very effective way to start a fire, but we will if it is sunny. First prepared a good tinder to ignite easily and point to them that speck of light. Flint and link
is a good system that works in all circumstances. If you do not have flint We can try a hard stone. (Need to try until we find one that discards good spark, and then save it for other occasions.) We hold the flint near the tinder and beaten with a piece of steel, such as the blade of a knife, trying to direct the sparks to the tinder. Arco
Indian bearing system is a well-known air friction very adventurous, but if we can not choose the wood you'll use most likely fails to ignite the fire.
consists of rapidly spinning rod using a bow on another piece of wood. Build the arch with a flexible arm and a cord (shoes, bag, parka, etc.).
If we want the method to work we must rub against hardwood lumber (see previous page firewood and firewood hard tender). In any system of friction of wood, if we get a black dust, and coal, we will correct with the right wood, however, if we get a rough, gritty dust, desechémosla and seek another.
When it starts to smoke add the tinder well compacted so that the coals are spread easily and blow gently rubbing while continuing to achieve a flame.
saw method is a method typical of the jungle, and is using a soft wood, usually bamboo for "saw" (made a sawing motion) other hard, often coconut shells. Used as tinder cottony fiber from the leaves of coconut, brown hair covering of some palm trees or the membrane that we can get from bamboo.
belt method will use a strip of linen or other strong fiber and softwood industry. Industry will rise slightly by placing a stone. Pass the strap under the stone and will throw alternately from one end and the other to produce friction. You have previously placed the tinder under the branch, touching the belt.
Other methods can be used to make sparks battery cables connecting the two poles.
also in theory it is possible to manufacture a lens with a piece of ice carved with a knife and end up giving way to the hollows of their hands. Even if the cold is intense, the risk of freezing our hands may be too high. It is also possible to use a concave object (the ass of a bottle, for example) to make the lens, pouring water on it and letting it freeze. If we do two, we can paste with a little water if the cold is intense, it will freeze quickly.
sometimes add a few drops of gasoline or alcohol on the tinder can ease inflammation, but not thoroughly soaked.
If you use gasoline or other fuel in a container to warm, note that there is a potential risk of accident. Never add more fuel until the flame is turned off and the container to cool. Fire to warm
To take advantage of the heat reflector must build a fire with some wood or use a natural (a rock formation, a low area, a large tree ...) we must pay attention to wind direction lest we come smoke in the face. Between the fire and the reflector prepare a dry bed, soft and comfortable where we will stand us. Y. LP Knoeffler Coineau and say on this subject in his work live and survive in nature. Ed Martinez Roca: "Light a fire intense long before the time of rest and shortly before this, cover the bed of coals with a thin layer of ash. Heat, returned by the reflector, heat for about 8 hours and enclosed area. "
cooking fires is better to cook a small bonfire that consumes less fuel and is easy to maintain. It is always on practical cooking embers of the flame.
We can build a home that will serve to put the pot by making a small fire between two logs, two stones, etc.
If our pan has a handle like that of the cubes can hold over the fire with a "crane" improvised with a bent arm clamped between stones and another branch that worked as a "hanger."
