The three things necessary for a fire are heat, oxygen, and fuel.

HEAT
The most common way to light a fire is with matches or a lighter, but there are also other ways to do it. If you plan on using matches, be sure they are the strike-anywhere type and waterproof. Waterproofing matches can be done by carefully dipping them entirely in shellac or varnish and storing them in a waterproof container. Another technique for starting a fire is by using flint and steel. This traditional method involves hitting of a piece steel against a flint (a stone that is harder than the steel). When the steel is hit against the flint small sparks are formed that will easily light small tinder on fire.

OXYGEN
A common mistake that people make when building a fire is to not provide enough ventilation. A way to prevent this is to start constructing your fire with a heavier stick placed at an angle for support. Then, lean tinder against it and light the fier at the very bottom. This will let the tinder ignite quickly. After the fire is burning well, bigger pieces of wood may be added. Be careful, if too much fuel or too large a piece of wood are added too quickly you can suffocate the fire by consuming all the oxygen.

FUEL
There are three types of fuel, tinder, kindling, and logs. Tinder ignites easily because it is usually very fine, dry, and very flammable. Examples of natural tinder are: cattail fuzz, milkweed down, wild carrot tops, goldenrods tops, bird and mouse nests, shredded cedar bark, birch bark, pine needles, pitch pine splinter, and dry grass. Dead and very dry vegetation is what should be used.

Tinder is easy to ignite but won't keep the fire burning. That is what kindling is for. Kindling is wood, such as twigs and very small branches added after the tinder adn before the larger logs. In general, harder woods burn hotter, and split wood burns much easier than whole logs.