Survival Skills: The Right Time To Blow On A Fire

Remember the last time you blew out the candles on a birthday cake? You knocked out those tiny flames by simply blowing air across them. Even though added airflow can invigorate a smoldering combustion reaction, blowing on a fire at the wrong time can also put it out. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched people blow their fire out, just like a candle. (If I had to guess, it was probably one person in every class for the last 30 years, so that’s a lot). When starting a fire, many people start blowing too soon or blow when they didn’t even need to. Once you have a small base of embers that are smoldering, then you can blow on the embers. These smoldering materials will react favorably to forced air. In contrast, tiny flames will be extinguished by the same jet of air. This is why we can blow on a tinder bundle when we use a magnifying glass for ignition. The magnifying lens created embers in the tinder. We can also blow on tinder when we add an ember from friction fire, or flint & steel. The ember gives us a steady source of heat in the tinder, which can grow, spread, and eventually flame up when we blow on it. If you are using flame based ignition (lighters and matches), make sure they are underneath good dry tinder and very slender kindling pieces. These should take off by themselves and you shouldn’t have to blow on the fire at all. Good luck - and remember to only light fires that you can put out.