THE BEST WAY TO BUILD A FIRE IN YOUR FIREPLACE

1. FIND YOUR FUEL

Keep seasoned wood – meaning it’s been air- or kiln dried – near the fireplace (a couple of days indoors should dry out most pieces).

Wood with rough surfaces will catch easier than smooth wood. For tinder, gather two handfuls of twigs and break them so they resemble an HB pencil in length and diameter. Half a section of newspaper or a grocery-store mailer will work as kindling.

3. PRIME YOUR CHIMNEY FLUE

In wintertime, cold air coming down your chimney can suppress a fire and push smoke into your house. ‘Priming the flue’ reverses the draft. To do this, roll up a spare piece of newspaper, light one end like a torch, and stick it up your chimney for a few moments.

The rising hot air will push the cold air out of the chimney, allowing smoke to escape.

2. SHAPE YOUR KINDLING

After making sure your chimney’s damper is properly open, tear the newspaper into 5 cm-wide lengths and rub the strips between your fingers so they separate into ribbons. Put the ribbons in the fireplace in a mound roughly the size of a tennis ball. Rest some of your tinder on top of the mound and lean more tinder on those twigs to create a little hut around the paper.

4. LIGHT IT UP

Light the paper. As it ignites, lean larger pieces of tinder against the hut. After those catch, add a fuel log on top of the hut, being careful not to smother the flames. To help the wood catch, blow air across the bottom of the fire where the newspaper meets the surface of the fireplace. Don’t have a fireplace tool set? Use sturdy metal kitchen tongs to move the wood around.