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A fire reflector
A wall of green logs or a rock face behind the fire, so the heat comes back to you and your shelter instead of into the woods.
What you need
- Four stout green stakes, about as thick as your wrist
- Green logs or poles, enough to stack knee high or higher
- An axe or a saw
- Or a big rock face, a boulder or a steep bank that will not burn
How
- Pick the spot for the fire first. Your shelter opening faces it, and the reflector goes on the far side of the fire from you.
- Drive two stakes into the ground about a forearm apart, then two more the same way beside them, so each pair makes a slot.
- Stack green logs flat between the pairs of stakes, one on top of the other, to make a wall. Lean it back a little, away from the fire.
- Build the fire a step or two out from the wall, between the wall and your shelter.
- Keep the fire long and low along the wall, not tall. A long fire throws heat along the whole length of you.
- Sit or lie with your back to the shelter and let the wall send the heat back at you.
Do and don't
Do
- Use green wood for the wall. Dry wood will catch and burn away.
- Clear the ground down to mineral soil or rock where the fire goes.
- Keep a pot of water or a pile of dirt by the fire.
- A shelter with its own back wall, or a tarp lean to, gets heat from both sides this way.
Don't
- Do not use rocks from a brook, a beach or wet ground. Water inside them can make them crack and burst in the heat.
- Do not put a nylon tarp or tent close to the fire. A spark melts a hole in it.
- Do not build it against a live tree, a root or a stump.
Watch for
Danger
- Fire can creep underground through roots, moss and peat and come up again hours later, far from where you lit it. Build on mineral soil or rock, and drown it out cold before you leave.
- A fire and a wall close to a shelter door can trap smoke inside. If your eyes sting or your head aches, open it up and move the fire out.
Notes
A fire in the open sends most of its heat up and away. A wall behind it turns a small fire into a warm one, and a small fire burns less wood through a long night.
A big rock face with a fire in front of it is the oldest camp there is. The rock soaks up the heat all evening and gives it back after the fire burns down.
Updated 2026-09-27
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