There are three main types of materials that can be used to build a fire; tinder, kindling, and fuel. Depending on the type of survival situation you find yourself in, you will find many of these materials readily available; you just need to know what they are. Examples of materials in each of these categories are listed below.

Types of Tinder

• Birch or thin peeling bark • Shredded inner bark from chestnut, cedar, or red elm trees. • Shavings of fine wood. • Ferns, moss, fungi, and dead grass • Straw & Sawdust • Fine Pitch wood scrapings • Fallen evergreen needles • Punk or portions of rotten trees and dead logs • Dry cattails, bulrush, thistles or seed heads • Dried fibers of vegetables • Fallen palm leaves • Skin-like and outer bamboo linings • Lint and lint from seams and pockets • Charred cloth • Waxed paper & Cotton

Types of Kindling

• Small strips of twig and wood • Split wood • Heavy cardboard • Pieces of removed from within larger piece of wood • Wood doused with flammable materials like oil, gasoline, and wax Types of Fuel • Standing, dry wood and dead, dry branches • Dry insides of fallen tree trunks as well as large pieces of branch. • Finely split green wood • Bunch of dry grass twisted together • Peat dried enough so it can burn, these can be found atop undercut banks • Animal fat and dried dung • Oil shale and Coals