Imagine finding yourself in a survival situation while camping, you have broken matches and no other way of starting a fire to keep warm. All you have in your camping set is some food and water, a ripped tent, some containers for food, and a steel wool based tool for cleaning them, as well as a flashlight.

This guide will teach you how to start a fire with only a few of the items listed above: batteries from the flashlight and the steel wool.

Step 1: Tools and Materials:

- 2 Batteries (most types will work, but I wouldn't recommend going smaller than AA)

- Steel Wool (long enough to touch the ends of the two batteries stacked on top of each other)

- Tinder

- Firewood

Step 2: Create an Ember:

To start a fire you will need to create a hot ember to light the tinder. You can do this buy causing a current of electricity to travel through the steel wool. This will create a large amount of heat in the steel, and it will become red-hot.

Firstly cut off a piece of the steel wool, long enough to touch the ends of both batteries. Then hold the negative and positive ends of the batteries together, and press each end of the steel wool onto the opposite ends of the two batteries.

Soon parts of the steel wool will become red-hot, be careful because at this point you can easily burn yourself.

Step 3: Transfer the Ember:

Now you can start your fire by transferring the ember into some dry tinder.Then lightly blow into the tinder which should then set alight, after which you need to carefully but quickly transfer it to the location for the fire. In order to continue the fire you will need to add wood of increasing size until you reach log-size.

Step 4: Uses of the Fire:

Fire is very, very useful in a survival situation and has definitely saved many lives in the past, so here are some basic uses of this essential tool:

- Heat: a fundamental part of survival.

- Water Purification: boil water to cleanse it of pathogens.

- Cooking: both meats and vegetables can be cooked over a fire.

- Signaling: fire can be used to alert rescuers of your location.