To make s’mores, you need to build a fire for roasting those marshmallows. The teepee fire is an easy fire to build. It puts out a tremendous amount of heat, even with a relatively small fire, but is quite easy to maintain.

Supervise small children closely around a campfire. Make sure their marshmallow sticks are long enough that they can stand away from the fire as they toast their treats.

Follow these steps to build a teepee fire:

  1. Bunch up a ball of frayed bark, dried grasses, and tiny twigs from a pine tree, evergreen, or other available tree along with your fire-starting materials if you have them.

  2. Lay very small twigs and sticks — not much larger than the kindling — against one another and over the ball to form a teepee shape.

    Leave a small opening through which you can place the match to ignite the fire.

  3. Continue adding more wood, gradually longer and thicker (up to the width of two fingers).

    Maintain the shape of a teepee at all times.

  4. Once the teepee is built to your satisfaction, carefully strike a match, shield it from the wind, and place it next to the waiting ball of kindling to ignite it.

    When adding wood, lay each piece carefully into the flame and always keep the shape of the teepee intact.

Do not toss or arbitrarily throw wood on a fire as at best it sends up a shower of sparks, creating a fire and safety hazard, and it could destroy the fire.