Pyromania 101: Lighting a fire with wet wood Having trouble getting the fire going hot? If wood is wet, it will only burn as hot as the temperature of boiling water (212 degrees) until all the water has boiled out of the wood. This will cause a lot of smoke and steam to come out of the wood while the fire is getting going. Most commonly, you will hear sizzling from the wood just like you would hear a pot of water sizzling as it boils. The best thing to do in this case is tend to the fire closely and as you see the center of the logs charring and turning to hot, burned embers, move those embers closer together. This will cause the gases being released from the wood to ignite due to the increased heat. Keep a few logs criss-crossed on top of your base logs. This will draw the fire up. Youll get some heat from the fire as it builds, but once all the water boils out of the wood, the entire fire will engulf in flames almost instantly, and intense heat will follow. Once you have a solid base to the fire, the trick becomes keeping a red hot bed of coals in the stove at all times in order to throw additional logs on top. When a fire is going strong, the water will burn out of the wood rather quickly, and continue the fire going strong. Happy burning, Pyromaniacs! Tis the season to discover that true warmth! If you havent discovered your warmth yet, stop into our showroom on Branford Hill and discover what alternative heat sources can do for you!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:30:01 +0000