Introduction
The bugging out time can certainly catch you off guard, forcing you and your relatives to address an emergency and to leave the comfort of your home and your goods.
The compulsory needing to leave as soon as possible because you need to reach your bug out location can be very dramatic, yet.
Wheh harsh times strike, there’s little room to think which are the best strategies to face it.
All consists of your previous preparedness, especially if your bug out location is set somewhere in the woods.
A secluded place has surely a lot of pros. Unreachable, remote, far from others’ eyes and reach. The woods may accept you – if you know how to deal with them.
On the opposite, they may reject you and your family, making your outdoor living an insurmuntable pity. They may show no mercy, when it comes to live for a considerable amount of time offgrid.
Are you prepared for that?
Are you skills good enough?
Are your kits reliable, tough and durable?
Above all… Are you fit for that life? Because it can turn out to be the only, possible life in a Post-Apocalyptic scenario.
In this article we will cover one of the most essential aspects of outdoor living: fire, and how to make it relying on a good Fire Kit.
A Prometheus-man
Beside the psychological facet of fire, the mere presence or absence of it makes a huge difference between life and death. I mean, in any kind of environment.
Fire is essential to warm, to cook, to disinfect, to purify, just to name the most important cluster of actions connected to that.
It makes no surprise that Survival Schools all around the world dedicate to the Art of making fire in-depth classes, often layered into different levels.
Stop giving value only to Ferrocerium Flints!
There are actually several other ways to make fire once in the Great Outdoors.
And it makes perfect sense to opt out for the simplest and easiest one if you are caught up in a bad situation.
In particular, if you are experiencing miserable weather, you will surely have more chances to make fire with a lighter (and the proper tinder), instead of going for friction fire.
Keep things easy always pay off. In the very same manner, learning how to start (and to maintain) fire taking advantage of different approaches and methods will definitely save you when circumstances require it.
As Master Survival Instructor Dave Canterbury wrote inside his manual “Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival“:
“The man, who goes afoot, prepared to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth.”
This is consistent not only with your abilities in fire starting, but also with the knowledge of your Fire Kit and all its components.
Your experience as well as your expertise actually lay the foundation for your success.
By that said, the more methods you are familiar with, the more successful you will.
A sharp-minded, well preserved and functional Fire Kit is exactly what you need the most when in a bugging out situation.
A good Bug Out Fire Kit
Bear in mind that knowledge is power.
This outlook will be of tremendous aid when you will need to resort to your expertise in one of the following scenarios:
- with awful weather conditions
- when you have very little of tinder
- when you have few time
- when you are in poor physical and mental conditions
- when you – or one of your relatives – are injured
- when you are caught up by an abrupt change of climate
- when you find yourself in an area you aren’t familiar with
- when you have lost part of the tools inside of your Fire Kit
By sheer facts, you may surely experience one of these cases once in the Great Outdoors.
It won’t escape from notice that you actually do not need a huge Fire Kit. A normal size pouch will be more than enough.
What does make the real difference is the variety of the single pieces, as we will unfold in the next paragraph.
Fire Kit – My personal selection
It goes without saying that it took me years to fix my Fire Kit.
In fact, I improved it several times, according to Survival Classes I attended, friends’ tips and recommendations, books and field manuals I read and obviously… some valuable videos on YouTube I carefully watched.
Let me do a shout out to Waypoint Survival, as I learned a lot from his channel, including some… “tricks of the trade”.
With no further ado, let me share with you my ultimate Fire Kit.
All his components are contained inside the Navtel Pouch by Helikon – Tex. I can easily attach it to my belt thanks to the molle attach, and due to its narrowness it is the perfect solution in terms of comfort, load, weight and bulk.
Hands down: this pouch is absolutely perfect for keeping all my Fire stuff together.
It contains:
- Three Ferrocerium Flint – a straight one and two more “artistically shaped”
- Several flints I keep inside a tin box, wax treated thin rope
- A round shape Uber Fire tin with treated cotton
- Waterproof matches
- Cotton swabs soaked treated with wax
- A “tinder” tin box which contains tampons, birch bark, fatwood, cotton and three black rubber bands
- two Bic Lighters
A recent addon to my Fire Kit is a guitar pick, wrapped by some gorilla tape all around the bigger lighter. I have to admit that, once again, I gained that lesson from Waypoint Survival.
As a matter of fact, I can actually use the guitar pick to start fire, by burning it with the lighter. The flame it provokes it absolutely nice and… even shattering!
Having a bunch of them is a nice thing. They weight nothing inside your Fire Kit or pockets. In addition, you can create a hole and fix them in your key holder or keeping the at your necklace along with a folding knife.
Same speech for some small sticks of fatwood. Fatwood is indeed one of the most brillinat and costless resources you may resort to.
When you have the chance, collect it and process the big piece into small ones. They do not only smell good, but they are real explosive when it comes to make fire.
This is especially true with poor weather conditions.
Having a stockpile of tinder in your Fire Kit is absolutely mandatory.
Half of your Fire Kit should dedicated to that.
About The Author
Article by Kyt Lyn Walken. Official Representative and Instructor for Hull’s Tracking School and Certified Conservation Ranger for the NGO Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide.
