There are three main types of materials that can be used to build a fire; tinder, kindling, and fuel. Depending on the type of survival situation you find yourself in, you will find many of these materials readily available; you just need to know what they are. Examples of materials in each of these categories are listed below.

Types of Tinder

• Birch or thin peeling bark
• Shredded inner bark from chestnut, cedar, or red elm trees.
• Shavings of fine wood.
• Ferns, moss, fungi, and dead grass
• Straw & Sawdust
• Fine Pitch wood scrapings
• Fallen evergreen needles
• Punk or portions of rotten trees and dead logs
• Dry cattails, bulrush, thistles or seed heads
• Dried fibers of vegetables
• Fallen palm leaves
• Skin-like and outer bamboo linings
• Lint and lint from seams and pockets
• Charred cloth
• Waxed paper & Cotton

Types of Kindling

• Small strips of twig and wood
• Split wood
• Heavy cardboard
• Pieces of removed from within larger piece of wood
• Wood doused with flammable materials like oil, gasoline, and wax

Types of Fuel

• Standing, dry wood and dead, dry branches
• Dry insides of fallen tree trunks as well as large pieces of branch.
• Finely split green wood
• Bunch of dry grass twisted together
• Peat dried enough so it can burn, these can be found atop undercut banks
• Animal fat and dried dung
• Oil shale and Coals