Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 2: Make a fire with a grate
• Method 2 of 2: Starting a fire without a grate
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Lighting a fire in a fireplace is usually a simple task. This can make some people forget some important steps in the process that will help them enjoy their fire more. What could have been a beautiful evening by the fire can quickly become a smoke-filled room. Here is a recommended method that, if followed, will help make your fire enjoyable from the start.

To step

Method 1 of 2: Make a fire with a grate

1. Check if the damper or fan is open. The damper is a device that controls the amount of air flowing through the flue. The flue is the passage or flue in a chimney. Feel in the chimney or stick your head in to look at the muffler with a flashlight. There must be a lever that you can move in some way. One direction will close the damper, the other will open it - check that the damper is open, otherwise smoke will flow back into the room. Also make sure there are no obstacles.
   • This is much easier to do "before" lighting the fire. Once you've determined that the damper is open, you're ready to get started.
2. Air the fireplace before lighting it. If your fireplace has glass doors, open the doors 15 to 20 minutes before lighting the fire. This will allow the inside of the fireplace to reach room temperature. Cold air is heavier than warm air, so if the outside is too cold it can create a stream of cold air that flows through the chimney to the fireplace and traps there by the doors. By opening the doors and letting some warm air rise up from your room, it may be enough to start some draft up.
3. Check the draft. Light a match near the chimney opening and see if the draft goes down or up. If it still comes down, you have to find a way to reverse the draft and get it up. Under no circumstances can you light the fire with the draft down. One method is to use a starter block (StarterLogg is a brand - break off a quarter of a block) or a more expensive kind (such as Duraflame or Pine Mountain). These continue to glow, creating some heat in the fire pit and pulling the air upward, and they burn with little smoke:
   • Close the damper. This prevents the air from coming down and the air from flowing into your living space.
   • Place the log at the back of the fireplace shovel, light it, and place it in the fireplace near the chimney opening. What you are trying to do is heat the top part of the fireplace.
   • Leave the chimney flap closed first to allow the fireplace to reach room temperature.
4. Set up the base of your fire with newspaper and other tinder. Newspaper or tinder in the beginning helps light the fire and create lots of flames.
   • Make four or five wads of newspaper and make light bundles - place them on the grid as a bottom. Do not use too much or you will generate unnecessary smoke.
   • If you don't have newspaper, you can use another tinder to create flames. Tinder is a light, dry material such as dry moss, straw, small twigs or newspaper that catches fire in a spark. You can also use tinder with resin in the tinder, such as pieces of bark or pine cones. You can also use fixed fire starters as tinder. Tinder first catches fire and burns very quickly. The trick is to get enough tinder under the kindling for the kindling to start burning.
   • Never use highly flammable substances, such as lighter fluid, gasoline or diesel, when lighting a fireplace.
5. Stack kindling on your tinder in a grid. It is important to create a stable base for your larger logs. The kindling wood catches fire more easily than large logs, which creates a larger flame in the beginning and the fire lasts longer.
   • Make sure to stack your kindling horizontally. This means that you have to lay it flat, and not on the floor. In addition, leave openings for air to pass through. Air is fuel for fire.
   • Stack it in layers, crosswise on top of each other. Stack two or three larger pieces of kindling on top of the newspaper, then another two or three pieces on top of the pieces that are perpendicular to each other, creating a sort of grid. Continue to stack smaller pieces of kindling on the grate, with each new level perpendicular to the last.
6. Place one or two larger logs on top of your kindling. Depending on your kindling placement, you may be able to safely place a few logs on top of your kindling.
   • In general, opt for smaller blocks. Larger blocks may look nicer and are more fun to burn, but they have a larger surface area, making them harder to catch on fire. Two blocks the size of one block are almost always preferred.
   • Stack the wood up to half the height of the fireplace. You don't want the fire to get out of hand when you light it and you can always add more firewood if needed.
7. Light the newspaper first. The kindling comes next. Pay close attention to the smoke for the first half hour. The smoke should hardly be visible when it leaves the chimney directly.
   • If the smoke from the chimney turns black, the fire is not getting enough oxygen. Use your poker to gently lift the wood pile; pry the wood up a bit, like jacking up a car. Watch out - all you have to do is let some air under. If your bed of coals under the grate is too high, use the poker to spread them out under the fire, leaving a few inches of air space.
   • If the smoke is gray, most of the combustible material will escape through the chimney instead of burning.
     • You probably didn't start the fire from above.
     • You may have used wet wood.
     • The fire is getting too much oxygen. Yes, this is confusing - fire is a delicate balance of air and fuel. If there is too much oxygen, the fire cannot get a grip on the fuel, and more smoke than usual will be produced.
8. Leave a window ajar. If you're still having trouble getting it right through the chimney, and the smoke is coming back into the room, try opening a window about an inch open. This works best when the window is on a wall opposite the fireplace, with few obstructions - it is not intended to cause drafts for other people. Sometimes it helps to break some sort of "vapor barrier" that is in the room and the smoke can rise up the chimney.
   • If people sit between the fireplace and the window, they will feel cold because the fireplace will begin to draw in air. It will pull hard through that window, creating a cold air flow between the window and the fireplace.
   • Stay away from it and let the fire go - sometimes this is the only way to keep the draft running smoothly and keep the smoke out of the room, if the chimney is not high enough. The rest of the room needs to stay warm, it's just the draft that's going to be a bit chilly.
9. Place the large logs on top. If you want to enjoy the fireplace all evening, you can ensure that the fire continues to burn for a long time without intervening, by first preparing the fire well. Once the fire is burning well, you should start to see some red, glowing embers under the fire.
   • If the smaller wood catches fire and the fire is burning hot, get a larger, thigh-wide block of wood. Carefully place it on the fire, making sure the stack doesn't lean to one side.
   • The larger wood will take a while to catch fire, but once it does, it will burn for a long time without you having to stoke it or move it. The glowing embers keep it warm, and you should have it nice and warm for a few hours.
   • Make sure the logs cannot roll out of the fireplace. Your fireplace should have a heavy mesh curtain or some other protection for it. Also, never leave the fire unattended, you never know.
10. Burn the wood at least half an hour before you want it to go out. Divide it with your poker as much as possible over the fire pit. The thinner it spreads, the faster it burns up and goes out. After the fire is out, check that the coals and embers are all completely out. If so, close the damper so you don't lose valuable heat up the chimney all day long.

Method 2 of 2: Starting a fire without a grate

1. Place two large logs - the bigger the better - parallel about 6 inches apart. Make sure they are perpendicular to the window of the closed glass doors, or the opening of the fireplace. These large logs become the bed of the fire and contain the embers to feed the fire.
2. Place one crossbar over the two large blocks. This block should be about the diameter of your forearm and parallel to the window of the glass door or fireplace opening, closer to the fireplace opening.
   • This crossbar holds the other firewood and creates a ventilation grille where the fire can draw in fresh air to feed it from below.
3. Make wads of newspapers (do not use glossy paper) on the bottom of the fireplace. If necessary, use other tinder such as dried twigs or wood shavings as a base.
4. Place some kindling wood on top of the newspaper. Do not put larger logs or fuel on it yet. If you can, stack the kindling in a grid, leaving enough room for the air to pass through.
5. Light the newspaper or tinder. Make sure the kindling starts to burn - it should crackle.
6. Place some logs between the large logs on top of the cross beam. Again, these blocks should be about half the diameter of your forearm, parallel to the crossbar. Always assume this setup: two logs, a crossbar on top, and firewood held by the crossbar.
   • Make sure the logs cannot roll out of the fireplace.

Tips

• Make sure to use dry wood for your fire. Wet wood is more difficult to burn (the shall burn, so if it's an emergency, you can burn it wet).
• Check the wind speed. If it goes faster than 35 km / h, close the doors of your fireplace. Otherwise, the cold air will sink into the chimney, causing the warm and cold air to circulate in the chimney, so that no fire can start.
• If the draft is still not satisfactory, your chimney may not be high enough, or your firebox is too big or too small. If you have a short chimney, try to get a few extensions - you can usually get these through fireplace stores or hardware stores. Use a roof patch to stick it to the existing chimney. You can also try removing the spark arrestor - sometimes the tops are placed too close to the closed area. Use some gauze over the top of the opening to catch larger sparks and embers, but leave the top off. This can also help with tricky drafts.
• The wood must be dry to burn. Also choose softer woods, such as conifer, pine, fir and cedar. These are easier to burn.
• If the cold air is pouring in, use a hair dryer. Simply open the chimney and direct the hot air from the dryer towards the chimney - the cold air will then reverse.

Warnings

• Keep anything flammable away from the fireplace, such as carpet, rugs, clothing, socks, gloves, newspapers, tinder, kindling, and firewood.
• Don't leave a fire unattended in your fireplace. All sorts of unexpected things can happen - there can be a bag of moisture or resin in a log that can make it pop in the heat. If it pops out past the fireplace screen and lands on the carpet or furniture, instead of the fireplace, you may wake up to an unpleasant surprise.
• Make sure your chimney and fireplace are properly cleaned and maintained. Checking for cracks once a year will ensure that no fire escapes from the chimney and sets your home on fire. Removing creosote (greasy soot) build-up on the inside of the chimney prevents a chimney fire, which is terrible - very difficult to put out and extremely destructive. See articles on inspecting a chimney.
• Buy a pair of fireproof gloves (welding gloves work well) in case a piece of burning wood falls out and you need to put it back immediately. Keep heavy fire hand tools near the firebox, such as a poker, tongs, small shovel, and metal bucket to put hot coals in. Also make sure there is a fire extinguisher nearby.
• Make sure the airflow is good before lighting the fire.

Necessities

• Tinder (newspaper, etc.)
• Kindling wood
• Wood
• Something to light a fire (matches, lighter, etc.)
• Tools for the fireplace (poker, shovel, tongs, etc.)