How to Maintain the Flame

A campfire on a picnic or an indoor fireplace is a great and natural way to warm up your campsite or home. Once the flame starts to fade, you can easily make the fire burn again and keep it burning by adding fuel such as firewood and logs.

Table of Contents

Maintain an outdoor fire

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Concentrate on tinder and firewood. Tinder and firewood are small pieces of wood, twine, or paper that help the fire burn easily. Tinder is a flammable material even with small sparks used to start a fire. Fire is a stronger fuel and helps sustain the fire. You need both of these fuels to create a good, long-lasting flame.

Suitable materials for making tinder: newspaper, cotton swabs, and toilet paper all work if you’re camping. If you need more natural materials, try using dried leaves, cotton wool, and birch bark. ^{[1] X Research Source}
Suitable materials for making fireflies: dry twigs, small, thin pieces of wood such as wooden sticks or broken branches. Dried leaves are also very good.
Keeping the fire burning also requires a process. Start with the tinder, then the firewood, and finally the firewood. To keep the fire from going out, you will have to repeat this process.

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Use dry firewood. All firewood used for the fire must be completely dry. If there is any moisture left in the firewood, the fire will be harder to maintain, and you may end up with a smoky pile of firewood. If dry firewood is not available, use fireflies and tinder to combat the moisture. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Avoid using freshly cut logs, as they contain a lot of standing water and do not help the fire burn steadily.
Old firewood is best because it has been left to dry for months or even years. If properly dried, it will catch fire quickly and burn very quickly.
When camping outdoors or in the woods, look for fallen logs or an old tree to cut. Oak and birch are hardwoods that give off a lot of heat when burning, but the flame burns for a long time and continues.

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Start the fire with a soft wood, then use a hardwood to sustain the fire. Consider using hardwoods and softwoods. Softwoods are suitable for a fire, while hardwoods help sustain the fire.

Soft woods like pine and fir are more flammable but burn out quickly. If you want to keep the fire nearing, add more softwood to make the fire quickly burn again.
Hardwoods are harder to ignite when freshly ignited, but burn longer and give off more heat. ^{[3] X Research Sources}
One solution to keep the fire burning is to use softwood first, then add more hardwood when the fire has burned well and is stable to the embers.

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Provide oxygen to ignite the fire. Make sure air flows through the fire, preferably from all sides. You can do this by lighting a fire on the grate if you have one. Spread some paper (such as newspaper) in the center of the fire on the grate before loading the wood.

Load more firewood, remember to leave space between the logs for ventilation.
Occasionally add tinder and firewood to the gaps between the logs.
Make fire. This step is really helpful when starting a fire to help the fire flare up.
If you need to quickly rekindle a dead fire, gather the embers in a pile. Use embers as a base for tinder and sparks, then add more wood when the fire starts to burn again. Use soft wood if possible.

Maintain the fire when it rains

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Start slowly. You can still keep the fire burning when it’s raining or just finished raining without dry wood. You just have to be patient and work harder.

Concentrate on making a small fire in one area of the fire pit. The more wet the fuel and the larger the area where the fire is, the harder it is to generate enough heat to sustain the flame.
Use more tincture and sparks. Do not rush to try to burn a whole log. You should make a fire with paper and sticks.
Birch bark can burn quickly even in the rain thanks to its natural oils that repel moisture.
If possible, use a tarp or something over the fire to keep out the rain. Cover only enough to prevent burning or catching fire.

Maintain the fire in the house

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Scoop out the ashes from the fireplace before lighting the fire. You should leave a layer of ash about 2.5-5 cm thick to protect the fireplace floor, while keeping the embers and helping to dissipate heat.

Too thick a layer of ash under the hearth can accumulate, making it difficult for the wood to burn quickly and consistently.
Too much ash can also be harmful to health.

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Oven regularly. If the fire seems to be dying out, use a long stick or a poker to move the logs. You can also blow into the fire to provide oxygen. Continue to light the fire until the fire is stable again. The fire will go out if you don’t keep an eye on it. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Use a spade to gather coal. Pink charcoal when burning will be very hot and provide enough heat for tinder, firewood and softwood to burn quickly. Charcoal will get hotter and will retain heat for a long time if you collect it with a stick/stork.
When the firewood burns into charcoal, turn the coals and blow to make the embers glow, then add tinder, sparks and firewood.

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Occasionally add tinder and sparks to the fire. When lighting a fire in the fireplace at home, sometimes there are logs that are not hot enough to catch fire. To keep the fire burning longer, you should occasionally add sparks and tinder before adding more wood to create more flames and heat to help ignite the wood.

If you have a blast furnace in your fireplace, you can stack the fireflies and tinder underneath the grate to let the fire rise to the logs above.
If there is no space underneath, you can use a poker to stuff tinder between the logs.

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Add hardwood logs. Add more wood to the stove so that there is still room for the fire to “breathe”. Do not suffocate the burning flame. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Large hardwood logs are well suited for sustaining a burning fire. If the fire is hot enough, the hardwood will soon begin to burn as well.
If the fire is getting smaller, you can also add soft logs to the stove to quickly light up the fire.

Advice

You should never burn:
- Tin box
- Plastic bottle
- Tire
- Candy wrapping paper
- Treated wood
- Newly cut tree
You can use fire gel. This is a gel lighter fuel that contains chemicals. You just need to put the gel on the wood and light it; firewood will burn in minutes. This is a useful fuel for starting a fire. Vaseline cream also has a surprising effect in this.

Warning

Before lighting up the fireplace in your home, be sure to check that the chimney is open properly.
Always be careful when using fire.
Never let a fire burn unattended.
You need to know how to put out a fire, alarm it, and use a fire extinguisher.

Steps

Maintain an outdoor fire

Maintain the fire when it rains

Maintain the fire in the house

Advice

Warning

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