Fire can be dangerous or save our life. We need to be prepared either way. The odds are you will experience a house fire during your lifetime. Actually more than one. Are you ready? Are you prepared to make a free in a survival situation?

1. Fire can save your life.
It can also take your life.
What you need to know
for survival and safety.
Updated 2022

2. We rely on fire for heat, for cooking, for
signaling.
The ability to make fire is one of the
essentials of human survival.
The ability to put out a fire is of more
immediate importance in our homes and
work.

3. Fire is your friend in a survival situation. I know we’d all like to
use that bow and stick, but for emergencies, a lighter is much
easier.
The plasma lighter on the left is also a flashlight and
rechargeable.
I pack several lighters both electric and gas . Windproof.
Stormproof matches in a waterproof container.
Click on images below.
Lighters and Matches

4. Since I list a rechargeable lighter on the previous page, power
becomes an issue. I used to focus on using batteries for power,
because rechargeable requires, well, charging. However, I’ve
become a fan of solar, which allows a renewable power source
from nature.
The small solar power bank on the left is light and in my GnG
bag.
The more powerful one on the right is heavier. It’s attacked by
velcro to my Jeep dashboard facing the windshield.
Power

5. Starting a Fire
The keys to starting a fire is to gather
proper flammables in 3 piles:
-Tinder: dry, flammable material that
needs only a few sparks to ignite. Wood
shavings. Thin, fibrous plant material. Fine
steel wool.
-Kindling: slightly larger to initially feed the
fire. Dry wood chips. Twigs. Dry strips of
bark. Paper
-Firewood: thicker branches and logs.

6. Field Expedient Fire Starting
If you don’t have your lighters,
matches or magnesium fire starter:
Hand drill: labor intensive.
Mirror/Glass: requires sunlight and
parabolic mirror or lens.

7. Field Expedient Fire Starting
Hand drill: This field expedient way to build
a fire is also the most labor intensive. Use a
piece of hardwood as the fireboard. Make a
notch in it with a knife or pointed rock. You
need a two-foot-long stick whose tip fits into
the notch. Surround the notch with tinder. Roll
the stick between your palms (wear gloves if
you have them), causing friction. Enough
friction causes heat. It will start smoking and
ignite the kindling. Slowly add kindling to build
the fire.

8. Field Expedient Fire Starting
Mirror/Glass: This requires two items.
Sunlight and a parabolic mirror or lens. The
reflector of a flashlight, or the clean inside of
a soda can cut open are possibilities in a
pinch. A clear bottle filled with water can also
work. Anything that can focus the rays of the
sun. Direct the focus sunlight on the kindling.

9. Field Expedient Fire Starting
Sustaining a long term fire: keep the flames
going. If a fire burns down to embers, you use
the core of that to restart the fire, using the
same flow as starting a new fire: tinder,
kindling, firewood. Tossing firewood on
embers could disperse the embers and cause
you to start over again.

10. Field Expedient Fire Starting
The most field expedient is to be
prepared.
Have your storm proof lighters,
matches and magnesium fire starter.
If you’ve never started a fire in nature
from scratch, you should try it. It is not
as easy as most people believe.

11. The Danger of Fire

12. In Case of Fire
If your clothes are on fire: stop-drop-roll.
If escaping a fire, close doors behind you
as you exit.
If you touch a door handle and it’s hot, or
the door itself is hot, don’t open the door.
If you have to escape through smoke, stay
low.

13. In Case of Fire
Once out of the house, don’t go back in.
Meet at your IRP.
If trapped in the house, stay in a room with
doors closed.
Place a wet towel under the door opening
to block it.
Call 911. If you have a window, open it and
signal.

14. Immediate Rally Point
The IRP is a place far enough away from
the house to not be affected by the fire, but
easily recognizable in the dark where
everyone will meet.

15. Fire

16. Using a Fire Extinguisher
Buy dry chemical extinguishers, rather than
water-based. Chemical are effective with grease or
electrical fires.
NEVER use a water-based with those types of
fire.
USE PASS when employing a fire extinguisher:
Pull the pin and hold facing away from you.
Aim low. Aim at the base of the fire.
Squeeze the handle.
Sweep the extinguisher from side to side.

17. Evacuating
Take a look out of all your windows. Can you get
out and to the ground safely? My wife looked out
the master bedroom in one house we were renting
and while it was on the main floor from the front, it
was three stories up from the rear. We bought an
emergency three-story ladder that you can throw
out the window.
First Alert 2-Story Escape Ladder:
https://amzn.to/2V65M4Z
First Alert 3-Story Escape Ladder:
https://amzn.to/2SdhatX

18. Wildfires
This is a subject I deal with separately with its
slideshow and in the Survival Guide.
That slideshow is HERE.

19. More Free Information
I constantly update free, downloadable
slideshows like this on my web site for
preparation and survival and other
topics.
FREE SLIDESHOWS
Also, I conduct Area Study workshops
for those interested in properly
preparing for their specific
circumstances.

20. AMAZON
This book walks you through your personal situation,
your home, and your Area of Operations.

21. AMAZON

22. AMAZON

24. New York Times bestselling author, is a graduate of West
Point and former Green Beret. He’s had over 80 books
published, including the #1 bestselling series Green Berets,
Time Patrol, Area 51, and Atlantis. He’s sold over 5 million
books. He was born in the Bronx and has traveled the world.
He’s lived on an island off the east coast, an island off the
west coast, in the Rocky Mountains, the Smoky Mountains
and other places, including time in East Asia studying martial
arts.
He was an instructor and course developer/writer for years
at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School which trains
Green Berets and also runs the SERE school:
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape.
www.bobmayer.com