For me, making fire is one of the most important survival skills a person can possess. Along with warmth, it can be used for making drinkable water, cooking food, and providing security.
But like any skill, it is perishable. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Because of that, I will usually make a fire whenever I venture out into the wild, even if I don’t need one.
I have learned that every fire and every situation is different, from the varying resources available, down to the climate and weather conditions themselves, no two fires are exactly the same.
There is one thing that is constant however, and that is understanding the fundamentals: Heat. Oxygen. Fuel. That’s all there is to it. The real trick his how you combine these three components to achieve the desired result: Fire. Life. Survival.
