Last modified on April 2nd, 2020 at 6:53 am

Tips For Starting a Fire With Wet Wood

During winter when everything is covered with snow or rainy seasons, you expect everything to get soaked. This is a hard time for campers because starting a fire with wet wood can be tricky. What if you want a warm evening with your favorite people around a campfire?

If you do not know how to start a fire with wet wood, then you can experience a hard time. This is a very crucial skill that any outdoor lover should know. Starting fire when wood is wet sounds like a cliché. But if you have the right knowledge in starting a fire during wet conditions, you will enjoy camping during winter.

To help you avoid getting stuck when you are camping, I have gathered a few tips that will help you start a fire with wet wood. Read the following tips so that you will not have any problems setting fire during winter or a rainy day.

Essential things you need to start a fire with wet wood

Before we get into details, it is important to have some essential items that will help you start a fire when the wood is wet. You need fire igniters like tinder and kindling. You can make tinder right at your home. There are also other items in your home that act as good tinder. They include:

  • All sorts of paper
  • Cotton balls
  • Wood shavings and tree backs
  • Fire starter
  • Knife
  • Hatchet

Step by step guide

After gathering the necessary items that you need to create a fire when you are camping in cold season, let’s get deeper on how you will actually create the fire.

Step 1: Ensure That the Foundation Is Dry

If the wood is wet, there are high chances that the ground is also wet. Starting a fire when the foundation is wet can be challenging. The first thing that you should do is to ensure that the firebase is dry. If the surface is covered with snow, get rid of the snow, mud, wet leaves and much more. Doing this will help you find layers of dry soil underneath.

If that is difficult to do, you can lay some logs of wood to act as the base where you can start a fire. Alternatively, you can use torn pieces of cloth to act as the base. Coming up with a fire bed will not only ensure that the moist ground doesn’t touch the fire but it also provides stability when you are starting a fire.

Another way you can create a fire bed is using rocks. You don’t need to travel far to find rocks. If there is a river nearby, you can collect some large rocks that will help separate the fire from the wet ground.

Step 2: Set Up

Once you have prepared your fire bed, the next thing that you should do is to set the tinder, kindling and log piles a little distance from the fire bed. Keeping everything organized will prevent you from wandering from one point to the other looking for what you need.

If you cannot find dry wood, you can use wet wood. The wood might be wet on the outside but dry on the inside. However, if it is fully soaked or rotten, this can be a challenge. Cut your logs into manageable sizes and check if you will find any dry wood in the middle.

If the wood is wet all through, then move to the next tree. At some point, I’m sure that you will find wood that is dry in the inside. You can split it to get more dry surface area. The dry pieces will burn easily but they will also take a shorter time.

Step 3: Lighting

Begin by lighting tinder. It doesn’t matter the type of tinder that you have. At first, light a few pieces first with the help of a fire starter and then add more tinder gradually. You should not throw all the tinder at once.

Step 4: Add Kindling

If you see that the fire created by the tinder is stable, you can go ahead and add some pieces of kindling. When the fire continues to build, add more kindling. When you are doing this, ensure that your logs are not far so that you can dry them out.

Step 5: Add Logs

This is an important step and you should be careful because a simple mistake can put off the fire. Start by adding some small pieces of logs as you work your way to the larger logs. If you add big pieces of logs at first, this can kill the fire since it blocks the supply of oxygen at the base. One of the best ways in which you should stack the logs is in a pyramidal style. Have thin and small logs at the bottom and then add the medium sized logs. Do this until you get to the top and your fire is blazing.

When the smaller logs are burning well, you can go ahead and add larger logs slowly. Wait for about 15 minutes so that your fire can be of a decent size and as the logs keep burning, continue adding the logs as you need. Now you can enjoy a great time with your friends in a warm environment.

Final Words

If you are an outdoor enthusiast, learning how to start a fire with wet food is an important skill to learn. Sometimes you cannot wait for sunny days so that you can set up your campfire. The sun might be back in a month. Creating fire with wet wood is not as simple as it looks. You need to have the right items to make your work easier.

After going through this guide, I believe that you have grasped some tips for creating fire with wet wood. If you find that there are things that we missed in this post, we would like to hear your ideas in the comment section. Cheers to happy winter camping!

Julie Adams

I have been a nature enthusiast since I was a small girl. My background is in online marketing and website development. It only makes sense to merge my love for nature with my skills in online marketing to help spread awareness, and appreciation for Our Beautiful Planet.