A roaring success

Sometimes your wood fire takes off; other times it merely smolders. Here’s a three-step process to building a roaring fire on your hearth. Prep time is longer than flipping the gas switch, but when your fire blazes you’ll love it like a baby.

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The right woods

Use soft woods (spruce, pine) for kindling and then harder woods (birch, oak) once the fire gets going.

First layer: Softwood cut to 1-foot length and as thin as a ruler.

Second layer: Softwood cut to 1-foot length and about an inch thick.

Final layer: Hardwood logs split down the middle.

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How to do it

Foundation: Crumple sheets of newspaper into loose grapefruit-sized balls. Place under the fireplace grate. Place thinner kindling across the grate. Be generous with the kindling but do allow for oxygen to move through. Light the paper and blow on the burning pieces.

Build up: Once the paper sets the first tier of kindling aflame, begin layering on

the thicker softwood. Don’t layer it so thickly that you suffocate the flame. As the first few pieces catch, layer a few more. Keep blowing.

Top off: Once you have a fire going, haul out the big guns - the split hardwood. Don’t smother the flame by laying them smack dab in the middle; place them so the air can get to them. When one hardwood log burns down, throw on another.

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Source: Roman Dial, professor of biology, Alaska Pacific University

Graphics reporting by Steven Barrie Anthony