The jungle not only gets lots of rain, it also takes a long time to dry out (as so little sunlight reaches the jungle floor) – all of which can make fire lighting a challenging activity. You may well find that methods that have served you well in temperate forests (e.g. hand drill, spark sticks etc) are too sensitive to the wet climate/humidity of deep jungle and either don’t work or are very difficult to make work.
I will cover some emergency ways to light fires in the jungle (bamboo fire saw, bow-drill, flint and steel etc) later on, and it is good to know these techniques as it gives you confidence to know that you can light a fire with nothing more than a parang. However, when it’s really wet these methods can be fickle friends and what worked easily enough in your backyard may not work so easily in the wet and humid environment of the jungle.
And, in an emergency situation, you will have other things on your mind (shelter/rescue/water/food etc) and won’t want to have to waste time and effort trying half-mastered friction fire methods that might let you down.
So… take a lighter with you. Better still, take two and wrap some inner-tube round them as emergency tinder.
The type of disposable lighter I use in the video is my preferred choice. These lighters are cheap, light, tough and waterproof, they have a simple no-nonsense mechanism and a transparent body (so you can see how much fuel is left in them). Their main weakness is the wheel at the top of the lighter can dislodge if it gets badly bashed around and, if it does fall off, the spring below will fire the tiny flint into the undergrowth!
I also show you how to use these lighters when they are low on fuel or out of fuel altogether.
Note: I’ve seen people use out-of-fuel lighters to light up “prison-matches” (which are small cones made of tissue paper filled with lint from their socks)… I’ve not had any success with this method in the jungle (perhaps my lint was too damp?) so, if you are thinking of using that method, test it for yourself first to see if you can get it to work.
This last point “test it for yourself” applies to any fire starting method… an emergency situation in the jungle is not the time to start trying out techniques dimly remembered from a how-to-video you watched years back. You need to really know that you can make it work before you invest the time and effort in trying to make it work… time spent trying (and failing) to get a fire going is time that would have been better spent on improving your shelter, getting water etc.
Now that trick with a wet piece of rubber inner tube is the best kept secret I had never known of…. and I’ll use it now and pass on that knowledge.
Hi Sniperbait,
Thanks for the comment – rubber inner tube is great stuff (although a bit smelly when you burn it) – you’ll see most of the locals/natives who go into the jungle regularly will carry some (usually wrapped round their parang sheaths).
Another useful fire starter is gaffer/duct tape – just roll up a little (about the size of match), light it up and watch it burn!
Cheers!
Paul
I love old style satchel charge fuses…but I haven’t been able to get any in a long time…you can start fires in any conditions with’em!
GREETINGS FROM LOUISIANA U.S.A. !
Hi A.B. Noone,
Many thanks for the comment and I’m intrigued by the satchel fuses…don’t think we can get them over here but I imagine they are great things to have. I usually take in an alcohol burner and, if the wood is all damp and I’m feeling a bit lazy, will just pour a bit of alcohol onto the kindling and that always does the trick!
Thanks again,
Cheers!
Paul
To get a bigger, hotter spark from the flint of a used lighter:
Hold it upright and *slowly* turn the wheel. This is to rub off some flint as powder without igniting it. About 5 rubs should do. Then rub it fast as normal and the gathered flint powder will ignite in a big hot spark. This wastes more flint but is more sure to light tinder the first time you spark it, especially non-charred tinder.
Hi Beng Tang,
Thanks, as always, for the tip and info – I tried this method you describe a few times but didn’t find it worked as well as I’d hoped. I’ve seen people do it on Youtube and know that it can be done, I just found it a bit tricky myself. Saying that, if you have no premium tinder around, it could be the only way to get the weak spark to light the tinder, so it’s worth a go of all else fails.
Cheers!
Paul
Paul,
Glad to see this advice on taking a lighter.
Despite being an avid fan of the hand drill, to the point that I light my bbq this way and have to dart off into the bush whenever I travel to discover the local materials, I find great humour in the prevalent youtube rendering of this plan as a good option for an emergency. An emergency situations in the bush (jungle) is very often is due to injury. Even if you have a broken leg or arm a disposable lighter is easy to use…..If I put 1/100th the effort into proper expedition preparation and protecting of a disposable lighter as I have done into practicing the hand drill I would never be without fire! The only drawback that I have with lighters is that technically you are not supposed to pack them on a plane. So if like me you travel a bit by plane, a ferrochromium rod on the keychain is not a bad option.
Cheers,
Aaron
Hi Aaron,
Many thanks for the comment and I agree completely that lighters are underrated tools in the wilderness. Like you I enjoy starting fires with friction fire techniques but it’s a different story at the end of the day after a long day’s trek when I’m tired and all I want is nice cup of tea and some dinner – then the lighter comes out and a piece of inner tube is going to get everything going lickety-split! I’ve seen a few comments where people state that lighters don’t work when they’re wet – true to a point, but it’s easy enough to dry them out and get them working again.
Good point about lighters being banned on planes and I imagine they will soon get round to banning fire steels too (along with everything else!) – the latest in the UK is an obsession with batteries being taken onto planes and you really begin to wonder where it will end.
But for me a lighter (or usually 2) as primary, fire steel as secondary and friction fire as back up fire lighting is what I go for these days.
Anyway, thanks again for the comment,
Cheers!
Paul