When weather has soaked the birchbark and underbranches of a spruce tree, the only way to make a fire is to chop sections of drywood and make shavings and small splinters of wood from the dry inner part of the tree. Knowing how to do this has saved lives during winter storms when ice and snow cling to every branch. Dry branches from willow and alder Willow and alder branches don't have the potential heat that dry spruce branches do, but they are adequate when there is nothing else available. Some people start fires with gasoline. It is particularly dangerous when the first effort hasn't succeeded, and fresh gasoline is poured on smouldering embers.
Some people dip a stick in the gas tank, and light that.
That is safer, but still far too dangerous. Firewood Firewood provides the heat to boil the coffee, cook the meal, dry the clothes and warm our cold bodies. Larger pieces of wood burn longer and slower. Smaller pieces burn faster. Foraging for firewood with an axe is hard.