to think that since I am the only person in this house who can build a bloody fire and keep it going

[Cathycomehome]

everyone else should leave it the fuck alone?

Lovely roaring fire, sustained it at optimum fire niceness level since six thirty. I go for a quick bath, and they've killed it AGAIN!

It's taken me whole minutes hours to get it going again properly.

(I may be being unreasonably angry about this. Possibly )

Ahh YANBU.

I am a fire virgin - our new house has an open fire which I love but I am still learning how to set a good fire. Give me your tips! DH says I'm not allowed to use accelerants

What did they do to kill it? Put wood/coal on wrong? Pointlessly poking it? Throwing water over it? YANBU, probably.

Pointless poking plus putting wood on wrong way and choking it plus chucking old paperwork willy nilly on it.

PS, Sidge, nowt wrong with firelighters, and they're fun .

I usually use 2 plus kindling.

YANBU.

Some people in this house have just taken a perfectly decent fire and killed it. Or at least killed it until it is too late for me to care that it is finally blazing away merrily again. Coal wasted, cheeriness disappeared and fucking coal dust all over mat as well.

Sorry, my DH can "do" fires.

I feel your pain. DH can use up to four firelighters and still not get the damn thing lit!

who are 'they'? If it's just DC, then YANBU but if DH then YABU and he should be taught how to keep a fire going

PS. Agree that firelighters are the way to go. I can light fires with carefully twisted little cones of paper and sticks but it takes a deal longer and is nowhere near as guaranteed as two firelighters, strategically placed with a neat little pile of kindling and not too much coal. Make sure there's space for air to get between everything and it'll get going in a trice.

Yeah, and also "I didn't touch it", when it's clearly a LIE is not an appropriate response to "Fucking HELL, why can't you people leave it alone!!"

And breathe

What irritates me is that DP is good with fires but his speciality is the Rayburn. Which he maintains with meticulous and effective attention. The open fire is mine and in the absence of a lit Rayburn should be left to me!

frame of 4 logs with gaps for air at corners filled with newspaper with a couple of firelighters wrapped in it, toppeed with kindling and then a couple of lighter logs laid from front to back of square.

Use dry wood until fire properly going. Keep wet wood next to fire to enable to it dry out and add later on when fire very well esablished (it will smoke a bit)

just realised you may mean coal - no idea then had wood when I was little

Oh I sympathise. Both DH and DS3 are buggers for random pointless poking of perfectly functioning fires.

Well the poker gets hot, now I come to think of it, so next time....

soandsomumy has got it licked

and I can 'do' that and dp think she can 'do' it too

but we both do it slightly differently and we often have 'thats MY fire, get off it' conversations

I once went on a camping holiday in Wales with 6 young men (thats another story).
I was the only one that could keep the fire going. I was designated chief fire technician
In retrospect I think everyone of them were just lazy arses, getting the woman to do the work....heigh ho...

I used to get in endless trouble for making my Great Aunts poker glow red.
We had bonkers noisy hot air heating, fires seemed much more fun.
In reality the revolting dirt generating stove at our old house wasn't. You couldn't even see the flames.

please move in with, I can't keep the bloody fire going to save my life and we need it for central heating.

We're sleeping with the bedroom doors open and an electric portable heater in the hall which is costing more of course.

grumble

I used 5 firelighters tonight, tons of kindle and logs and I kept it going for about an hour.

Fail

Another irritating way they kill it is chucking random loads of coal on it, which has the double irritant effect of killing fire AND getting coal dust everywhere.

There is a METHOD, godammit! Why won't they learn??

himynameisfred - are you using wood? Are you sure it's really dry? And the kindling? Wood and coal together best ime.

Oh how I miss a real fire. When I moved to the North East it was so nice to have a real fire again, like we had when I was a kid in suburban London. Smokelessness came in when I was 11, but was glad to find I still had the skills. Now we are in a new build and the gas fire is just not the same

Real excitement was when we managed to keep the fire in by ashing it up overnight.