It's that time of the year: fireplace season. There's nothing quite as comforting as building strong, steady flames to keep warm during the coldest winter nights. To be honest, starting a fireplace fire can be intimidating unless you have the right ingredients and the know-how. Without the right building blocks, you're going to be struggling to keep your fire alive all night long.
All the materials needed to build the fire in the fireplace can be found either around the house or in the backyard. Be cautious against burning pine and other softwoods in the fireplace as it can cause creosote to build up in the chimney, which could eventually result in a dangerous chimney fire. Seasoned hardwood is best to use in a fireplace.
Resources
- Dry Wood: This might sound obvious, but it's important that your wood is as dry as possible. Otherwise, it will just smoke up your home and you'll send everyone running out into the cold just to escape it. If you keep your wood outside, be sure it's protected from the rain and snow.
- Kindling: Kindling is the small pieces of wood that catch fire from the tinder to build the foundation for the main firewood. Any small scraps of dry wood will be great fire starters. Foraged twigs and sticks from the yard will work; allow them to dry so you have a large collection of free kindling. Or, you can DIY your own kindling by splitting logs into many small pieces.
- Paper: Newspaper without color or gloss is the best. Magazine pages are no good for this.
- Matches
- Screen
Steps
- Start by crumpling up some paper or newspaper and place it loosely underneath the grate.
- Take two of the biggest logs and place them parallel with the back of the fireplace on top of the grate. Leave space between them for the flames to reach up over the logs.
- Take some of the smaller logs and place them perpendicular on top of the bigger logs.
- Place the kindling on top of the smaller logs in a loose pile.
- Prime the chimney by lighting the end of a rolled-up newspaper and sticking it up the chimney just above the opened damper. You should actually feel the draft begin to reverse after a few minutes, or light one of the pieces of paper on fire with a match or lighter and hold it up in the chimney. This should start an updraft to ensure the smoke will rise right away. It is important to prime the flue so that you don't end up with a house full of smoke.
- If the paper is long enough and it's still safe to do so, use that same paper to light the pile of paper underneath the grate.
- Place the burning paper on top of the kindling. This should create a strong draft that will keep the smoke in the chimney and out of the house.
Cheers to a warm winter night!