5 Ways To Make A Fire In An Emergency Without Matches

Knowing how to start a fire without matches is an important skill you need to know. Personally I recommend you never venture into the woods be it a camping or hiking trip without a means to start a fire, such as a magnesium fire starter, or wind and waterproof matches. That being said, in a disaster or emergency situation you might not have access to those emergency supplies you have stored in your bug out bag or emergency survival kit.

So here is a list of 5 ways to start a fire without matches that are practical for a survival type situation. There are lots of tricks out there that probably do work, but for this list I wanted to focus on practical ones that I’ve actually used.

1. Battery and steel wool

For this method to work you need plain steel wool. If you’re stuck using SOS pads make sure all the blue soapy stuff is removed, otherwise this won’t work. You’ll also need a good source of dry tinder set up that you can transfer the wool too quickly because the fire made from steel wool will burn very fast. In a survival scenario that can be anything from paper, bits of clothing, plastic, anything you can get your hands on that’s dry and burns easily.

You want to stretch the steel wool out so that you can rub a battery on it. For batteries 9 volts seem to work the best (I haven’t tried this yet with AA or AAA so if someone has and it works please drop a comment below). I’ve also seen this done with cell phone batteries. Again this burns very fast, so keep it close to where your fire is going to be and have your dry tinder already set up.

2. Pop can and a chocolate bar / toothpaste

This method takes a long time but it does work. Your goal here is to turn the bottom of your pop/beer/juice can into a parabolic mirror to catch the suns rays and focus them into a concentrated point that will heat up some dry material causing it to catch on fire. The chocolate bar or toothpaste is used to polish your mirror. When applying the chocolate or toothpaste to the bottom of the can don’t slather the whole thing at once, otherwise you’ll just have a big mess. Use a small amount, this takes a long time so be patient.

Once your can is polished point it towards the sun adjusting it find the ideal focal point. Then add a small piece of tinder such as paper or cloth about an inch from the reflecting light’s focal point. In a fairly short amount of time your tinder should be hot enough that it’ll start to catch fire.

Again make sure you have everything for your fire already set up, otherwise you’re just going to burn your tinder and waste your time.

3. Magnify glass or glasses

How many of you as kids used to torch ants using a magnify glass? Like the last one you want to concentrate the sun into a small focal point to quickly heat an object. The same can be applied to a pair of glasses in the same way.

4. Double A (AA) battery and a staple

To me this one isn’t the most practical for everyday camping or hiking, but in an emergency situation in an urban environment this is a good one to know.

What you need to do is take a normal AA battery and cut and peel the plastic insulation from the edge of negative side. Then slightly pry up the thin metal piece, this will expose the paper insulation beneath. Insert your staple underneath the paper insulation, if you don’t have a staple a thin piece of wire or a paper clip will work as well.

Next you’re going to want to add your tinder, again in an emergency whatever you can get your hands on that will burn easily will do. Your tinder needs to be touching both the exposed end of the staple or wire and the bottom of the battery. The electricity from the battery will cause the thin wire to heat up quickly causing your tinder to catch fire.

5. Car battery, pencil, and jumper cables

If your car isn’t equipped with a cigarette lighter (newer cars don’t come with this as a standard feature depending on which country you live in) you can use your car battery to start a fire.

First take a pencil and carve two small notches into it down to the lead, this is where your jumper cables are going to connect to. The notches should be around 1 ½ inches apart, too close together or far apart and the lead in the pencil won’t heat up properly. You then want to take your jumper cables and connect them first to your pencil then your battery (this works the same if your battery is in your car or not)

Once attached it should start to burn your dry tinder very quickly.