Recently I started a new project: “A fire a day”. For this I introduced a new hashtag on Instagram: #afireaday . As the name implies it’s about trying to light a fire every single day.

With this I’m taking up a message I put in a blog post about training survival skills. The idea is to start small and easy so you can keep on practicing until you’re confident that you can tackle bigger challenges. Don’t start with planning a big adventure because you think you know a lot of theory. Just train the basics.

In this case making a fire. Small enough to put it out easily and without investing a lot of time. Read on for the details.

Rules of the project

To be honest, there aren’t any “rules” per se. The idea is to motivate people to go out and train even when they think, they don’t have the opportunity. So, just use every occasion. Like walking the dog, commuting home from work etc. Just make sure you choose a safe place where you can’t set anything ablaze. That doesn’t have to be the big outdoors. Take your terrace, a riverbank, a parking lot. Be sure to make it very small and put it out as soon as you are sure that you could let it grow if you wanted. After that go on with more experiments.

If you’re just starting out, use every trick and tool you can find. Maybe even start with some tissue and a Bic lighter. The more you know the more challenges you can include.

Going for more challenges in #afireaday

But if you’re already familiar with making fires outdoor, why not give yourself the chance to succeed in a challenge? You can set limits and be proud of yourself if you can beat them. If you can’t light it up? Don’t worry, keep trying and try it again. And if you succeed, read on to get some new ideas.

Here are some ideas for challenges

• Set yourself a time limit. That’s esepcially helpful if you want to integrate the challenge in your daily routines
• Go to a place where you know, ressources are scarce. Like only small pieces of wood or hard to find tinder
• Prohibit to use items from your gear. Like only firesteel but now tinder you brought. Or use only a very small firesteel. Or only a Bic lighter. No knife. You get the idea.
• Only use natural tinder and fuel. So even when you find an old newspaper, don’t use it
• Use methods you heard or read about but never tried
• Invent totally new techniques

These are just some ideas you can use. However, feel free to mix and match how you like and to fit your skill level. And of course, invent new ones and let me know!

How to go on with #afireaday

There may be good reasons why you might have to skip a day or two. Don’t let yourself down over something like that. Just keep practicing.

The basic idea is to get so familiar with different situations in fire making that, if you really need a fire, you’re calm and know you can rely on your training. Maybe it will be just useful for your next family barbecue. But maybe it will help you in a real survival situation.

You will find yourself soon to carry what you need for making fires. I for example added a fire steel to my EDC kit.