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Fire: Stage 1. Ignition – Emergency

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Emergency: Electricity

In most cases—especially in an urban or suburban environment, there are tools around you to assist with fire starting.

  • Electric Cigarette Lighter in most vehicles
  • Car Battery and jumper cables or other wire: The spark produced by touching the wires together is hot enough to light most tinder or fuel.
  • 9-Volt Battery & steel wool: Slide terminals across steel wool, next to tinder, to capture the heat of the burning metal.
  • AA or AAA Battery with a gum wrapper: Cut foil wrapper to create an hourglass shape, funneling and intensifying the electrical current through a tiny space, heating it to a flame.
  • Improvised Battery (remember those high school science experiments with potatoes?)

Emergency: Sunlight Refraction

Use any of the following to focus bright sunlight on a tiny spot of highly-flammable tinder. To help, consider making your tinder as warm as possible, like placing it in an aluminum box like a solar oven. This requires bright sunlight, focused on good tinder, with skill and practice to bring a smoking ember to full flame.

Lenses (convex)

  • Magnifying lens
  • Eye glasses
  • Binoculars
  • Telescope
  • Rifle Scope
  • Spotting Scope
  • Camera Lens
  • Camera Telephoto Lens
  • Fresnel lens
  • Car headlight/taillight lens
  • Clear light bulb filled with water
  • Wine goblet filled with water
  • Icicle
  • Ice lens
  • Glass bottle
  • Plastic water bottle
  • Clear bag of water

Parabolic (concave) Reflectors

  • Soda can bottom (polished)
  • Flashlight reflector
  • Aluminum foil in bowl shape
  • Car headlight/taillight reflector
  • Steel ladle

Emergency: Other

  • Road Flares, which burn hot and bright for half an hour
  • Flare Gun, flare ammo from a shotgun, or incendiary ammo
  • Shotgun, by firing cloth wads after removing projectiles
  • Model Rocket Igniters for a burst of sparks
  • Grinding Tools to throw sparks
  • Chemicals—if you are a Chemist, you have many options

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

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