Home >> Science & Nature >> Nature

How to Build a Stone Firebed

Sometimes knowledge can save your life. Fire has been keeping humans warm for thousands of years. If you're caught without shelter or proper gear during the winter, knowing how to build a firebed, a way of transferring the heat of a fire to your body, may mean the difference between dying of hypothermia in your sleep and greeting the morning sun after a warm slumber under the stars.

Things You'll Need

Matches or other fire-starting means
Shovel or other digging implement

Instructions

- 1
  Search the area, gathering dry leaves, grass or pine needles for tinder and twigs for kindling, as well as dead, dry firewood and baseball-size stones.
- 2
  Dig a trench, 6 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide and about 1 foot deep, in the area you've selected for the firebed. Pile the dirt you dig up neatly because you will use it later.
- 3
  Place the baseball-size stones in the trench, ideally about 1 inch apart. The stones will both facilitate air flow and retain heat.
- 4
  Pile the tinder in the center of the trench. Place kindling around the tinder in a "teepee" formation. Place firewood around the kindling in the same way.
- 5
  Light the tinder on fire. The kindling should then catch fire, followed by the firewood.
- 6
  Cook food, boil water, dry clothing or just wait while the fire burns down to coals.
- 7
  Spread out the coals evenly in the trench.
- 8
  Throw the dirt you dug up earlier onto the coals and stone in the trench. Cover the trench evenly, about 4 to 6 inches deep.
- 9
  Wait for the firebed to warm up. It should take about one hour.
- 10
  Cover the firebed with a dry cloth, leaves or another soft material for insulation and padding.

Nature