You don’t need a Boy Scout merit badge to build a roaring fire at your campsite – all you need are a few simple supplies and the following technique.

To get started on your campfire, there are a few things you’ll need to gather, including matches, newspaper, twigs and logs of varying thicknesses. It’s probably easiest to bring the matches and newspaper from home, although you may be able to find a camp store nearby that carries these items. You can find twigs around the campground, and you can even make it a game for small children to see who can gather the most. As for the firewood, drive around the community surrounding your campground. You should be able to find at least one home that has firewood stacked for sale with a “scouts honor” cash box.

As a note, many campgrounds are asking that campers refrain from bringing firewood from home, in order to control the introduction of emerald ash borers and other pests into managed forests. Don’t waste valuable car space bringing firewood that you may just have to throw out – wait until you get to the campground to purchase firewood locally.

When you’re ready to start your campfire, begin by crumpling up several pieces of newspaper and stacking them in the middle of your fire ring. Don’t ever try to start a campfire in anything other than the cement-filled fire ring located on your site – this could have disastrous results! The best time to start your campfire depends on what you plan to do. If you intend to cook lunch or dinner over the fire, start it at least an hour ahead of time to give the coals time to form. If you’re only interested in roasting marshmallows and spending the wee hours with friends and family around the fire, shoot for a mid-evening start.

Once you have a small pile of newspapers built up in the middle of your fire ring, begin to stack the twigs vertically around the newspapers, forming a small tee-pee over them. You don’t need to completely cover the newspapers with twigs, but you do want to include enough so that the twigs will burn long enough to catch the heavier firewood on fire. Next, add pieces of firewood around the twig tee-pee in the same structure. For best results, make a pyramid of three thin pieces of firewood over the twigs, and then add 2-3 heavier logs around the perimeter.

Once your structure is set, light the newspaper in several places around the fire ring using the matches you brought along. The goal is for the newspaper to burn long enough to catch the twigs on fire, which in turn catch the thin logs and then the heavier logs on fire. If the newspaper goes out before catching the twigs, add more, being careful to avoid any pieces of paper that are still on fire. Once the fire is going, keep an eye on it, using a separate stick to nudge any falling pieces into place. At the end of the night, be sure to douse any remaining embers with water to be sure the fire doesn’t spread overnight.