Dry seasoned or kiln dried firewood will have a moisture content of 20% for a hot, effective burn with less biomass released to your home and the wider atmosphere. Picture: iStock

L IGHTING a fire successfully, safely and cleanly is an art that’s increasingly unfamiliar in our changing world of economical, gas, electricity and HVO-fed boiler central heating. Wood fires, especially those set in new, Clear Skies rated wood-burners, remain an economical way to heat a home, adding ambience and comfort. If you’re tied to a traditional open-fire, burning wood, coal or anthracite blocks, it’s important to make that increasingly pricey wood or fossil fuel count with as clean a burn as possible.

First of all, you should get your chimney swept and checked from the hearth to the top pots by a reputable professional. Some householders have their service done twice a year, it really depends on how much you use your open fire, stove or solid fuel range.

The combination of fuel, fire and air will create a sticky mess over time that will coat the inside of your chimney or flue and potentially add to the danger of a chimney fire. So, brush its teeth first! If you’re lucky, the individual sweeping the chimney will leave the entire fireplace clear of ashes – if not, shovel out whatever is left into a fireproof bucket, wearing a mask if you’re susceptible to dust inhalation problems. Keep a little ash on hand for lighting the fire. Look for any failings in rope seals and the glass of your stove, getting those put right if needs be.

Priming the flue sounds like something we would do if lashing on paint, but it’s a little bit of physics to get the essential draw in the flue moving. Priming pulls warm air upward and past the pillar of cold air that’s been sitting in there for several months on top of a closed dampener. Going from a cold start in say October, that plug of chill can force smoke back into the room — not a great start to the season. With a really cold fireplace on an outside wall, throw in some damp wood and you’re in for a rotten evening. If you have a stove, open the front doors and let the warm air in the space run up through the flue — this will generally be enough to prime it.

Otherwise, light a (small) long, paper taper (newspaper is fine) and holding it very carefully, drift it at the bottom of the flue or just above the opened dampener. The warm air around you will be drawn up, guiding out the cold air and priming your fireplace or stove for use. If you’re having problems, close the main room doors and crack a window to create a deliberate draft that will be drawn towards the chimney, upwards and out. Holding a full newspaper over the fire opening is an old and dangerous hearth hack. The paper sheets can be quickly sucked from your hands into the flames by air pressure — not recommended.

If you don’t want to mess around with torchiere to prime the fire, you can use a small space heater or hairdryer set to on low, placed into the unlit fireplace and sending warmth through the firebox and up into the flue. Obviously don’t do this with a lit fire, 999 on speed dial. If the chimney is still smoking and it formerly drafted well, call in a professional to check what’s going on. There should never be a haze in the room. Biomass is a poisonous load on the lungs. If your stove is not lighting with the vents well open, open the stove door for a few minutes. Once well saturated with oxygen, with the fuel alight, you should always shut the door and adjust the vents to maximise its heat output to the room.

Presuming we have our draw, we need to add dry materials to start our fire. Those old ashes you’ve kept on hand are perfect for a 3cm-5cm bed to insulate the base of the firebox. Scatter them in and rake level. Building the fire up with wood, there’s two schools of thought — right-side and upside-down. Right side, uses rolls of balled newspaper crushed up in the palm, or firelighters, set under kindling, topped off by the larger pieces of wood. Upside down puts the kindling on top — the logic being that while lighting the fire, the flames are not pushing through dense heavy cold timber.

Stovemaker Jotul advises adding a layer of small logs of about 4cm, and then one or two layers of kindling: “Remember that air is important, around 1cm between the pieces of wood is the perfect spacing. Put a couple of firelighters on top of the layer of kindling wood or use some newspaper. Be aware that newspaper produces unnecessary amounts of ashes and soot.”

If you want to add natural found materials to your fire, collect and dry pinecones and orange peel for a quick light and soul-stirring scent on ignition.

Jotul and other leading stove makers promote the practice of a fresh fire every day. Yes, you can bank up and keep a fire going overnight with lump fuel, but a fresh fire each morning or evening will protect the longevity of the stove and its components and reduce the build-up of damaging, dirty creosote.

Timber should always be seasoned or kiln-dried with a water content of no more than 20%. Green, sappy, wet wood creates a choking, particulate rich, toxic, slow burn that’s inefficient and gums up the glass of your stove while creating a pitiful thermal output. An open fire is already sending 70% of its heat energy straight up and out to the outdoors, so don’t give it any more help in burning a hole in your pocket. Over-loading the fireplace or stove with logs will shut down the air gaps we need for the oxygen to circulate and keep the fire well alight. Modern stoves are detailed to tertiary and secondary burn, igniting gases above the fuel, so get to know what’s normal for your unit in terms of the height of the flames and the heat output.

Always choose extra-long matches to light your fire and quench and dispose of them carefully. Open fires and stoves where young children are present should be detailed with a stable, solid guard, fixed to the wall. Ensure the flooring around the hearth is fire resistant and don’t leave any open flame unattended. Open fires do collapse, gashing out embers. Bellows, crank turned or compressed by hand can blow specks of lit ash out around the room — best left in experienced, adult hands.

For happy pyromaniacs devoted to the soulful presence of a real flame fire, I would recommend The Little Book of Building Fires by Sally Coulthard. It’s a warming little pocket guide to sourcing, seasoning and storing firewood, choosing kindling and tinder. It describes how to build and light the perfect fire from campfires to wood-burners, bonfires to open hearths; €14, Anima, easons.com

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