Categories: Outdoor

How to Light a Fire Pit Every Time: The Easy 4 Step Guide

Published by
James marcus
Video how to use a fire pit

How to light a fire pit every time: The easy 4 step guide

There’s nothing better on a cool autumn night than having your fire pit burning and friends and family around. It’s the perfect way to unwind.

That fire pit, however, has to be lit!

This may seem a bit daunting if you’ve never done it before, especially if you are wanting to do it without the use of lighter fluid (which we highly recommend!)

The good news is, however, that it really doesn’t have to be. We have put together our definitive guide to lighting your fire pit without fail, every time!

Let’s dive in…

Fire Pit Safety

Your first priority for your fire pit should always be safety. Maintaining and adhering to safe practices when it comes to fire and your fire pit is essential in avoiding any unnecessary damages or accidents.

Here are a few things to consider for your fire pit safety:

  • Keep your fire pit at least 10 feet from your house, trees, fences, or any structures
  • Place your fire pit on an even surface
  • Don’t use any toxic products to light your fire
  • Don’t build your fire in windy conditions
  • Always keep a safe distance from the fire
  • Pay close attention to children when around the fire
  • Always keep an eye on your fire to make sure the flames aren’t getting out of hand

Now that we have these firmly implanted in our minds, it’s time to prepare everything we need to start the fire.

Prepare

There are a few things you are going to need to gather in order to start your fire. Let’s break these down

A lighter or fire starter – most commonly this is a kitchen lighter or matches, which work fine but can be slower and a little fiddly. Ideally, you would use a butane torch lighter which will start this fire much quicker. They aren’t very expensive to pick up if you don’t have one.

Tinder – this is the base and starter for your fire. Your tinder can be anything that is dry and nontoxic. So, leaves, newspapers, pinecones, tree bark all work well as tinder.

Kindling – this is the next level of the fire is your kindling which is smaller twigs and branches. Again, it is important that they are dry in order to take light and burn for long enough to get your firewood burning.

Firewood – your firewood logs are what we are ultimately aiming to light. These should be dry, seasoned, and well-stacked logs if you want to start your fire. We love the look of an outdoor wood storage area that compliments the material/design of your fire pit.

And that’s it. Once you have all of these together you are now ready to light your fire pit.

Lighting your fire pit

There are four simple steps to lighting your fire. Here we go:

1. Step 1 – Tinder

First, we are going to create a little ball of tinder in the centre of the fire pit. It only needs to be about the size of your palm.

2. Step 2 – Kindling

Next, we are going to build a little pyramid of kindling sticks around the ball of tinder. It’s important to leave a bit of a gap in order to let air flow, but not too much that the flames from the tinder don’t reach the kindling.

Tip – Leave a little gap on one side of the pyramid too in case you need to add more tinder at any point.

3. Step 3 – Lighting

Now we light the tinder. Pull out your firelighter and burn the tinder until it catches fire. Your aim here is for the tinder to set light to the kindling. If your tinder is burning up too quickly, and the kindling has yet caught light, just add more tinder.

4. Step 4 – Firewood

Once your kindling is burning it’s time to add your firewood. Again, we are going to arrange the logs in a pyramid around the kindling, making sure to leave enough of a gap for airflow.

If the firewood is taking a while to light, then you can always add more kindling underneath to keep the heat up.

In general, however, the logs will take quickly if your kindling is burning well.

There you have it, the four easy steps to lighting your fire pit.

Be sure to keep an eye on your fire and add another log or two through the night to keep it going.

Putting your fire out

When you are done for the night it is also important to put the fire out properly too rather than leave it to go out on its own.

This is very easy to do – just get a hose and gently sprinkle water over the top. Don’t dump the water on as this can damage your fire pit, just sprinkle until the fire is out and the embers aren’t glowing.

Once you’ve lit your fire pit a few times you’ll realise that there is nothing to it and you have it burning bright in no time, every time.

Watch the video of lighting the Cook King Bali Fire Pit

This post was last modified on 10/10/2023 20:02

James marcus

Garden Courte is a blog written by [James Marcus], a passionate gardener and writer. She has been gardening for over 20 years and has a deep understanding of plants and how to care for them. In her blog, she shares her knowledge and experience with others, providing tips and advice on gardening, plant care, and more.

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Published by
James marcus

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