Anytime you start a fire no matter if it is for fun or in an emergency situation, you need to always remember these two things.... to build a fire pit and to extinguish the fire before you leave the area, and when it isn’t an emergency situation then pay attention to local potential fire bans in your area, so you don't start a larger fire than you intended!

1. Powder/Dust - Here you want to have a fine material such as punky wood dust (dried up rotten wood), Fatwood shavings (naturally resin soaked wood) , or use scrapings from the bark of trees such as birch, that can take a spark from a ferro rod or a flint and steel.

2. Tinder - For this step you will need small fine materials that you can add to your powder or dust to really get a flame started and spread around quickly. Fatwood sticks, make a birds nest (dry grasses and such), Small twigs and branches, dry leaves, bark from a tree, or whatever else you can find that is dry will usually do the trick. Most of these items can just be found laying on the ground in a wooded environment or trash is always around in more urban environments.

3. Smalls - Next up is crucial, this step you will be adding small sticks/logs anywhere from a 1/2 inch thick or better to really get a good base for the fire and allow you more time if you need to gather up more wood for the remaining steps

4. Larger Chunks - Now your really going to get your fire going to last long term and provide you with the heat you need to get warm and to cook. For this step you are going to want anything you can find from around 4 inches up to about 8 inches that will provide a good amount of flames for putting the right amount of burn on that hot dog and spread plenty of heat to keep everyone sitting around it nice and toasty

5. All Nighters - These are logs you want to save for when the night is dying down and everyone is going to sleep. These logs should be pretty thick, anything 12 inches and above is ideal because you want to be able to have that fire going all night and even if it does burn up there will still be coals left to get the fire going again very easily by starting back at step 3