To Build a Fire

One poem that has always stuck with me since I was much younger than I am now was “To Build a fire” by Jack London It is a short story about a trapper in the far north that pushes himself passed his physical and knowledge limits of the environment that he was in. He ultimately ends up dying while his dog, very suited for that environment, continued to live.

Although there is a lot of depth to the poem which I could talk about, I have decide to focus on the trivial and thought if he only had a small can of Gasoline he would not have had any trouble at all in building a fire in fact he could have started a very big bonfire if he wanted to. It has just finished raining here on the coast. This ended bit of a drought. This also meant that it was wet enough to burn scraps of wood that have accumulated over the last month as well as parts of an old deck that we have just replaced.

With a little paper and gasoline everything burns (actually you don’t need the paper). It is interesting to note that with all fires it must reach a base temperature before it is all consuming. At that time it will take on a life of its own. burning all until there is nothing left to burn. Even 10 hours after it was lit there was enough heat and embers to have easily sparked up another fire without any trouble.

Thank goodness for a little accelerant for any fire starting.