Steels, sparks and snacks

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here.  Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help out if you’re short on helpers.
• If you’re running a blended programme, you could prepare your firelighters in an online session before you meet face-to-face.
• You could also run this session as two bases – this may be helpful if you don’t have a lot of space or equipment. At one base, people could use fire steels to light a small fire. At the second base, people could prepare a quick snack to cook on a fire (or barbecue) that the leaders have prepared. If you do this, make sure you have a system to remember whose food is whose so it doesn’t get mixed up.
• You could make a circle of spread-out piles that contain a fire steel, foil tray or jar lid, and cotton wool ball or two. 
• Prepare the materials people will need to make firelighters – we’ve included some suggestions below. It’s up to you whether everyone makes the same one or whether the group tries a few different types.

Catch a spark

1. The group should go to or collect a pile of fire lighting equipment. 
2. The person leading the activity should show everyone how to use the fire steel. Using the below method, they should explain and demonstrate how to create a spark safely. The group can then do it themselves with appropriate adult supervision.
3. The fire steel has two parts: the rod and the striker. People can hold them in either hand, depending on whether they’re right or left-handed.
4. People should kneel down with their back facing the wind and keep their knees together. This eliminates any draughts.
5. Everyone should pull their cotton wool apart, so that it’s really fluffy, and place it into the foil tray.
6. Everyone should grip their steel rod with their thumb on top and the side of their index finger below. They should hold the striker the same way. They should hold the striker above the rod at a 90-degree angle.

Feel the edge of the striker with your finger. The sharper edge should point down to scrape the rod.

8. Everyone should put the tip of their rod onto their cotton wool ball. They should try to get the fire steel as close to the tinder as they can to help guide the sparks to the target.
9. Now, tilt the striker to a 45-degree angle and scrape down the rod slowly, adding pressure to create sparks. Always move in a direction away from the body.
10. Everyone should keep trying until the sparks catch the cotton wool on fire. It should burn out in a couple of seconds.
11. Everyone should practise again with another cotton wool ball, until everyone has managed to light at least one fire.

Make some fire lighters

1. The person leading the activity should give everyone the equipment they need to make a firelighter. 
2. They should then explain how to make the firelighters, and everyone should follow the instructions.

 

Build a fire

1. Let everyone find a space to build their fire. People could work individually, in pairs or smaller groups – it’s a great chance for everyone to develop their fire lighting skills.
2. Everyone should collect some kindling.
3. Next, they should put the firelighter they made earlier into the centre of their space. Use the kindling to build a fire structure around it.
4. Like before, everyone should kneel by their fire with their back to wind and knees together. They should use the fire steel to light their fire by placing the rod next to the fire lighter and striking like they practised.

If people have made different firelighters, you can test them out to see which works best. People may want to take it in turns so they can watch other people use their firelighters.

5. Once the sparks have caught, everyone should gently blow on the flame or spark. This'll help to provide more oxygen to grow the flame.
6. Everyone should begin to slowly add bigger and bigger pieces of kindling, then pieces of wood, to establish the fire.
7. Tell people to let the wood burn for a few minutes. This would be the perfect time to prepare a snack, as glowing coals are the best for cooking on.

You could try making our Sausage smash recipe, Pitta pocket pizzas or try making Damper snakes. Alternatively, you may want to keep it simple and just toast some marshmallows.

8. Once everyone’s cooked their snack, safely and fully extinguish the fires.