How to Make Fire When Everything Is Wet

Anyone can light a fire on a dry summer afternoon. The skill that matters is getting one going in cold rain, when you are wet and tired, because that is when you need it most.

Where to find dry material

• Dead branches still attached to standing trees, especially under the canopy of large conifers.

• The dry inner wood of split dead logs: baton them open.

• Birch bark (it burns even when damp), fatwood, dry inner bark and dry grass from under fallen logs.

• Your own pre-made tinder, kept in a waterproof bag close to your body.

Process three times more than you think

In wet weather, prepare three times the tinder and kindling you would need on a dry day. Carve feather sticks from split dry interiors and keep everything under your body or your tarp until the moment you use it.

Build for the weather

• Build on a platform of sticks so the fire is off the wet ground.

• Use a tarp pitched high above the fire, never close enough to melt, or the canopy of a big spruce.

• Light a lean-to fire against a log to block the wind.

• Start small and hot, then dry your next layers of fuel around the flames.

Student tip: next time it rains, go outside and practise. Ten minutes of fire-making in bad weather teaches more than a month of fair-weather practice.

Want to learn this hands-on? See our field courses in Edmundston, NB, or start today with our online courses.