3114: Building a Fire

2025-07-12T00:16:50Z

2A09:BAC2:C72D:166E:0:0:23C:8C: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3114
| date = July 11, 2025
| title = Building a Fire
| image = building_a_fire_2x.png
| imagesize = 671x311px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = That was quicker than usual! The cabin's sprinkler system often makes it really hard to keep anything lit.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Please add sprinklers to the page so that it doesn’t burn down. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Megan is demonstrating to Cueball how to build a campfire. Instead of using a traditional log cabin [https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/outdoor-survival/the-6-fire-lays-every-man-should-know/ fire lay], she demonstrates building a miniature log cabin. A ''fire lay'' is a way to lay out the different fuels in a campfire to ensure successful progression of the fire from tinder and kindling, which are easy to light but fast-burning, to successively larger fuels including larger branches, split logs, and ultimately full un-hewn logs.

At first, Megan's build appears similar to a typical {{w|Campfire#Construction_styles|'log cabin' fire lay}}. It becomes unusually detailed when she adds interior walls and miniature furniture in the tiny dwelling, though these could be forms of the tinder and kindling needed for a log cabin lay. Things take a twist toward the bizarre, however, when she adds plumbing and electrical components to the house, as these are not the fuels or accelerants in a {{w|Campfire#Types_of_Fuel|normal fire build}}. A fault in the installed wiring then initiates a fire, leading to the promised campfire.

The joke in the title text is that she usually finds that it needs more time, due to also installing a {{w|fire sprinkler system}}. When working properly, this should suppress any possibility of a fire, and actively go against her goal of making one. In this instance, it may have been working no better than the faulty electric system.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A tent in a field stands in the background to the left of Cueball, who stands behind Megan, who is kneeling and arranging sticks into the first few layers of a small log cabin.]
:Cueball: Can you show me how to build a campfire?
:Megan: Sure! We'll use the log cabin method.
:Megan: First we build a square cabin out of sticks.

:[Cueball now stands to the right of frame, opposite Megan with the cabin between them. The cabin has gotten taller and is becoming better defined. Megan holds a tiny table in one hand and tiny chair in the other.]
:Megan: Next, we'll add interior walls, doors, and some cabin furniture made from twigs.
:Cueball: This is very elaborate.

:[The cabin now has a gable roof and an electrical wire leads from the base of the cabin to a coil of wire in Megan's hand and then off panel to the left. Lightning symbols above the wire indicate the wire is energized and perhaps shorting out.]
:Megan: Now we'll add some rudimentary plumbing and electrical wiring. 50 amps, nothing fancy.
:Cueball: It kind of seems like you're just building a cabin.
:Megan: I just -
:Megan: ...oops.

:[The tiny log cabin is engulfed in flames. Cueball is leaning away from the cabin and holding his hand to shield his face from the heat.]
:Megan: I think my wiring wasn't up to code.
:Cueball: AAAAA!!
:Megan: ... and that's how you build a fire!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

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3114: Building a Fire