Chemical fire: Starting a fire with trash

Survival often requires you to make due with very limited or random resources. Although many survival situations are in truly remote areas, many are also very close to present or former urban areas or human settlements. In fact, there have been countless cases of people that were lost or stranded within a few miles of civilization. I know of a girl who got lost in the wood just 300 yards from her rural home and ended up traveling several miles before being rescued days later. This means that in a survival situation, you might have a few items from your pack to start with, the random collection of items currently in your car, or you may happen upon human trash. No matter where I have gone, no matter how remote, I always find trash. Often, bottles in the trash still have a small amount of their original contents, and there are several common trash items that can help you get a fire started.

If you have a lighter or matches and want to conserve them, you can ensure that your fire will light on the first try if you have or can find some hand sanitizer. Many people carry this around, and can often be found in the trash. This is essentially a gel stabilized alcohol, and is very flammable. Even the briefest contact with fire will ignite it. If you can, spread it around on some of your fire kindling, and light it before it evaporates. Just be sure not to have any on your hands when lighting your fire. There have been several cases where people used hand sanitizer, then lit a cigarette and caught there hand on fire.

There are also chemical combinations that will start a fire spontaneously when combined. Two of the most likely to be on hand or found, are chlorine bleach with brake fluid, or potassium permanganate (found in disinfectants and in deodorizers) with glycerin (found in Sugar or Anti-freeze). These chemical combinations also emit dangerous smoke, so they should only be used in an emergency, and with proper ventilation, once you combine the chemicals, you should back away to avoid the smoke.  

-Richard