Preparedness Fire Starters

	Home | Contact Us Jump to... 72 Hour Kits Chart Your Progress Chemical Emergency Communications Cooking Source Death Dry Packing Earthquakes Employment / Career Extras Extreme Winters Family Escape Plan Financial Fire Fire Starters First Aid Food Storage Gardening Heat Heat Waves Helpful Hints Hurricanes Important Papers Important Phone Numbers Insurance Light Lightning Nuclear Disaster Personal Hygiene Physical Preparedness Prepare by the week Pressure Canning Recipes Review Questions Sanitation Sewing and Clothing Shelf Life of Food Shelter Snakes / Animals / Insects Spiritual Preparedness Sprouts Storage Areas Stress Management Surprise Theft Tools Tornado Utilities Water Wills and Trusts       Fire Starters Always have a fire extinguisher close by !!!! Sterno - can use as fuel to cook on or you can take a spoonful out of the can to help ignite a fire with a match or lighter. Metal matches - waterproof, fireproof, durable and non toxic. Will light thousands of fires. Wooden Matches – with a waterproof coating. Lighter – small lighters fit easily in your 72 hour kit and your car kit. Magnifying glass – concentrate sunlight onto paper, shredded bark or tinder. Sanitary napkin – the fibers make a terrific fire starter Pinecone fire starter - Materials needed: was (paraffin), pinecones, baking cups (muffin/cupcake papers), muffin pans, small cooking pan, and a stove. melt wax. Be careful melting wax. If heated too hot it can ignite!!! It is best to have heat on medium to low. Put two baking cups into each compartment of muffin pan. Put a little less than ¼ cup of wax into each lined compartment Dip pinecones into hot wax in the cooking pan then put pinecone into a muffin pan compartment, stem side up. When all compartments are full, Cool slightly then add more wax till the muffin cup is 1/2 full. Let cool till hardened. TO USE: build fire and place fire starter in where you can reach it. Light pinecone. It will burn about 10 – 15 minutes and get your fire started. Can be used in a fireplace, wood stove or campfire. Magnesium – fire starters are good for starting fires with wet or damp wood. Shave magnesium shavings off of a magnesium block with a pocketknife and then strike a spark from a flint starter with a pocketknife. Magnesium burns exceptionally hot and will ignite almost any combustible material. Works even when wet. Newspaper Logs – Four logs burn approximately 1 hour and produce heat comparable to the same amount of wood on a pound for pound basis. fold newspaper 12 X 15 X ½ thick. Fill bathtub or deep sink ¾ full with water – add 2 tablespoons detergent (laundry or dish detergent) Soak 2 hours, pushing the newspaper down into the water every so often. Roll wet newspaper grouping onto 1 inch metal or wooden rod Squeeze excess water while smoothing down ends and edges Tie with string 1 inch from end and in the middle Slide rod out Dry on end in sun Let air circulate around and through the log Log will be 12 inches by 2 – 4 inches in diameter Egg cartons and lint – use a cardboard egg carton fill each egg carton section with some lint from your dryer pour some paraffin in each egg carton section let paraffin cool and harden cut into individual section (you get 12 fire starters from each egg carton) TO USE: light the cardboard MAKING FIRE STARTERS WITH PARAFFIN (WAX) Whenever you use paraffin or wax as your fire starter, there is one rule to keep in mind: THE MORE PARAFFIN – THE LONGER THE ITEM WILL BURN THE LESS PARAFFIN – THE FASTER THE ITEM WILL BURN