History Main / HardToLightFire

This trope id about oil lamps, fuses, [[PowderTrail trails of powder]], bonfires or explosive gases never, ever light when you need them to. Matches get dropped or blow out, and lighters spark in vain, their butane exhausted. An unprepared would-be pyro may even remember everything they need to start a blaze, ''except'' the means of ignition. Whether it's necessary to [[KillItWithFire incinerate the monster]], blow up the villains' DoomsdayDevice, kindle a campfire to avoid [[KillItWithIce freezing to death]], or even [[TakingYouWithMe go out in a literal blaze of glory]], no fire in fiction ignites easily if RuleOfDrama is better served by it refusing to do so.

* Creator/AbbottAndCostello: PlayedForLaughs in ''The Time of Their Lives'', when Costello (the ghost of a tinker from the American Revolution) struggles in vain to light the tapers of a chandelier and a table lamp with a match, not understanding that they're ''electric'' candles.

* Arguably the whole fire-making subplot in ''Film/CastAway''. Here it's not so much that the fire would be hard to make, but the protagonist just has no implements to do so, meaning he has to figure out the secret of fire without modern inventions like matches or a lighter. When he finally manages it with the stone-age technique of rubbing two pieces of wood together until they heat up enough to create a flame, he creates a huge bonfire just for the sake of it, doing a victory dance and shouting, "[[ItsBeenDone Look what I have created!]] '''I!''' Have made '''[[TheDiscoveryOfFire FIRE!!]]'''"
* ''Film/{{The Colony|2013}}''. As they're pursued across a bridge by the cannibal tribe, Briggs tries to blow it up with dynamite, but the fuse doesn't light easily and blows out when he plants it, [[spoiler:forcing him to go back and blow it up himself in a HeroicSacrifice.]] And it doesn't light easily the second time, either.

* ''Film/{{Firestorm|1998}}'': After plunging into the river, Jesse tries to light a signal fire by striking rocks together. While he generates sparks, he cannot get the fire to light. He then looks over at Jennifer, who already has her fire going. She then smugly holds up a lighter.

* At the beginning of ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' (the 2008 movie), the adventurers accidentally ignite magnesium in a cave wall when lighting a flare next to it. At the end of the film, they try to trigger a magnesium explosion with flares, but it's harder because the wall is wet.

* ''Lou''. The title character drops all her matches in the water while trying to light a fire thanks to her arthritic hand, so she uses alcoholic gel and cotton wool from her first aid kit (instead of using it to treat her companion's abrasion) as tinder, lighting it [[MacGyvering using a battery with aluminium foil held across the contacts to short-circuit it]].

* In the original ''[[Film/PetesDragon1977 Pete's Dragon]]'', Elliot needs to light the lamp of the lighthouse with his fiery breath during a terrible storm. Although his BreathWeapon has been reliable up to then, he has to squeeze his neck and chest into the lighthouse's spiral stairwell to stick his head into its lamp gallery, which prevents the dragon from drawing in enough air to ignite the flame without several tries.

* ''Film/TheReturnOfCaptainInvincible''. A propaganda movie shows Captain Invincible at a Boy Scout camp. When the Scouts do the rubbing sticks method, Captain Invincible uses his superpowers to do the same using a huge log.

* In ''Film/{{The Thing|1982}}'', when [=MacReady=]'s blood test exposes one of the others as a Thing, he attempts to burn the revealed alien with the flamethrower. Naturally ''that's'' when the flamethrower's fuel line kinks and it produces only small puffs of flaming gas.

* ''Film/{{Water|1985}}''. When the Cascara Liberation Front seize the well, Michael Caine's character threatens to blow everyone up using the dynamite strapped to his colleague, only he can't get his cigarette lighter to work. When he does, the man wearing the explosive vest keels over in a dead faint.

* Sid the sloth has mixed success in starting a fire in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''. His first effort by rubbing sticks (in the ''rain'') is pathetic. His second effort, rubbing flint against stone, produces sparks that ignite kindling. And his tail.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Lighting campfires can be difficult even with matches if the air is too humid, the wind too erratic, or the available tinder, too damp or inadequate. There's a reason why well-prepared campers bring along fire starters such as potassium permanganate and glycerin, not just something to make sparks.
* Lighting things on fire without matches is actually ''really'' hard, especially if one is just using the "rub two sticks together" trick.
** Not helped by the fact that very few people even know how to do this, any more -- or even that it takes a bit more than just two sticks to do anywhere near efficiently.
** In the Boy Scouts, kids are taught the "rub pieces of wood together" method and similar methods as a distant last resort. If nothing else, it can help someone keep their body temperature up via repetitive movement. They're also taught that it's better to [[CatchPhrase Be Prepared]] and bring proper firestarting gear.
* In RealLife, moors, marshes and other damp stretches of land are notoriously hard places in which to light fires, for obvious reasons. The trick is to split logs open and light the dry wood in the middle.
* Also, you can stack the wood up, with space between the logs, to get it off the ground and allow it to dry out. Thus, you'll have a ready supply of dry fuel after a few hours or a day. And don't forget that while a ''log'' is hard to light on fire, a pile of dry leaves or paper is not nearly so difficult. Light the leaves, use them to ignite some twigs, use those to get some sticks burning, and work your way up until you have a log burning.
* This can happen to people who assume hair is more flammable than it actually is, and try to use it as kindling. This never works because hair is made mostly of keratin, which is a protein which contains a lot of cysteine. Disulphide bonds link thiol groups on cysteine molecules together, which stabilizes the protein and makes it difficult to decompose.
* Needless to say, safety concerns ensure that this trope is to some extent an ''enforced'' one in reality: if matches, lighters, lighter fluids, and other means of ignition were made '''too''' easily set light, they'd be more prone to ignite ''accidentally'' and set things on fire that aren't intended to be. The chemical mixtures used in matchheads, lantern fuels, and the like are therefore formulated to be flammable but not ''excessively'' so, ensuring it takes directed effort to set them ablaze.
[[/folder]]

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Darmok". Captain Picard gets a fire going by the rubbing sticks method, only for it to go out again. Dathon, watching nearby from his successfully lit fire, finds it amusing, but on seeing Picard shivering in the cold, tosses him a burning stick from his fire. Picard has been unable to communicate with Dathon, but the gesture starts the ball rolling, teaching Picard his term for either "giving" or "generosity".

* In the first ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]" the Doctor and his companions go back to OneMillionBC and visit a small tribe of cavemen. The leader of the tribe is the leader because he is the only one who knows how to make fire. Ian says that in his tribe (i.e. the Doctor and companions) the firemaker is the ''least'' important man.

And lamps, fuses, [[PowderTrail trails of powder]], bonfires or explosive gases never, ever light when you need them. Matches get dropped or blow out, and lighters spark in vain, their butane exhausted. An unprepared would-be pyro may even remember everything they need to start a blaze, ''except'' the means of ignition. Whether it's necessary to [[KillItWithFire incinerate the monster]], blow up the villains' DoomsdayDevice, kindle a campfire to avoid [[KillItWithIce freezing to death]], or even [[TakingYouWithMe go out in a literal blaze of glory]], no fire in fiction ignites easily if RuleOfDrama is better served by it refusing to do so.

* In Creator/RankinBassProductions ''Willy [=McBean=] and his Magic Machine'', the time-traveling MadScientist tries to [[TheDiscoveryOfFire teach cavemen how to create fire]], but hasn't brought anything to light it with, so the KidHero Willy [=McBean=] has to do it using the rubbing sticks method.

* ''Lou''. The title character drops all her matches in the water while trying to light a fire thanks to her arthritic hand, so she uses betadine and cotton wool from her first aid kit (instead of using it to treat her companion's abrasion).

* In ''Film/VanishingOnSeventhStreet'', moving shadows that make people disappear invade Detroit. One survivor assembles a gasoline-powered torch to keep them at bay, then asks his companion for her lighter. She realizes she'd left it behind at their previous hiding place, so both have to race the shadows into a nearby clinic where she used to borrow matches from one of the nurses.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''. When Woody and Buzz need to catch up with the truck carrying the other toys away, Woody pulls out a match to light the firework attached to Buzz's back. He lights the match -- which is then blown out by a passing car. Luckily he discovers that Buzz's [[ArtisticLicensePhysics plastic helmet can act like a glass lens and concentrate sunlight]] to light the firework's fuse.

* Arguably the whole fire-making subplot in ''Film/CastAway''. Here it's not so much that the fire would be hard to make, but the protagonist just has no implements to do so, meaning he has to figure out the secret of fire without modern inventions like matches or a lighter. When he finally manages it with the stone-age technique of rubbing two pieces of wood together until they heat up enough to create a flame, he creates a huge bonfire just for the sake of it, showing that he finally is becoming acquainted with his situation on the lonely island.

* In the first segment of ''WesternAnimation/TheHouse2022'', Raymond has trouble lighting up the fireplace but fails to do so until his old house's furniture is used instead of normal wood. Considering the house is an EldritchLocation, this circumstance is almost certainly supernatural in nature.

* In the Australian movie ''2067'', time traveler Ethan Whyte has to be talked through how to light a fire using the rubbing stick method by his computer Archie, which includes giving encouraging statements like "Even I find it hard to light a fire" and "easy-peasy".

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': I [[Recap/HTFGetWhaleSoon "Get Whale Soon"]], Russell and Lumpy attempt to light a fire to get out of the whale they're trapped in, but Russell finds that he only has one match left. After some difficulty, he manages to light it... only for Lumpy to sneeze and put it out.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/DrStone'', the protagonist and science genius Senku gets unpetrified in a flashback and is forced to figure out how to survive now that Earth has reverted back to the stone era in 5738 AD (thanks to the lack of modern civilisation). He attempts to start a fire by rubbing a stick with his bare hands, knowing the logic behind it and thinking it shouldn't be that bad. Many hours later, he collapses on the ground with no success--not only is it a hard thing to do, but Senku lacks the physical strength to make it possible. He lampshades that this task is more suited for brawny guys like Taiju or people skilled with their hands like Yuzuriha. He is eventually able to properly start a fire thanks to his great intellect and the tools he creates.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''. When Woody and Buzz need to catch up with the truck carrying the other toys away, Woody pulls out a match to light the firework attached to Buzz's back. He lights the match - which is then blown out by a passing car. Luckily he discovers that Buzz's [[ArtisticLicensePhysics plastic helmet can act like a glass lens and concentrate sunlight]] to light the firework's fuse.
* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', during the battle with the Huns, Mulan is trying to light the last firework but she drops her match. She eventually resorts to using Mushu's dragon breath to light it at the last second.
* Sid the sloth has mixed success in starting a fire in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''. His first effort by rubbing sticks (in the ''rain'', I might add) is pathetic. His second effort, rubbing flint against stone, produces sparks that ignite kindling. And his tail.

* In ''Film/{{Tremors}}'', Val and Earl forget to bring the lighter when they run for the cliff with the last pipe-bomb, forcing Rhonda to join them in running for the edge.
* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', the fate of Earth depends on lighting the last match the heroes have left. It's as dramatic as it sounds.
* At the beginning of ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' (the 2008 movie), the adventurers accidentally ignite magnesium in a cave wall when lighting a flare next to it. At the end of the film, they try to trigger a magnesium explosion with flares, but it's harder because the wall is wet.
* ''Film/TheExpendables2'': Gunner tries to get around a cave-in by setting a phosphorus torch alight (he was a [[HiddenDepths chemical]] [[CastTheExpert engineer]] before he became a mercenary). However, the explosive fails, and Gunnar notes it must have been damp, just in time for Mauser to drill through the cave-in.

* In ''Film/{{Skyline}}'', one character turns on the gas in his kitchen, puts a cigarette to his lips, and prepares to [[TakingYouWithMe blow up his apartment]] when the approaching alien Tanker reaches in through the window. However, when he actually tries to light it, his lighter fails. [[spoiler: It does work after he's been stabbed by the Tanker, though.]]

* In ''Film/TomorrowWhenTheWarBegan'', two girls place a petrol tanker under a bridge and lay a rope fuse with which to blow it up, then belatedly realize that each of them thought the ''other'' had brought the lighter.
* In ''Film/TheLastWinter'', Hoffman has to make a fire to save Pollock, who has fallen into water in the middle of an Alaskan winter. Despite the danger, he carefully builds his fire and avoids panicking when the matches initially refuse to ignite.
* Double subverted in ''Film/{{Feast}}'', in which several characters are attacked by monsters before they can finish assembling and lighting a Molotov cocktail to defend themselves from said monsters. In the final fight, one character finally ''does'' manage to light the thing ... only for its wick to be extinguished when a monster rips open the neck of another character, sending blood spraying everywhere and dousing the flame.
* At the end of ''Film/{{Mimic}}'', the hero tries to set a gas main alight to blow up the Judas Breed bugs. His lighter (which had worked just fine earlier) first refuses to light and then falls through a grating, [[spoiler: so he bashes metal pipes together until it strikes a spark]].
* In ''Film/VanishingOnSeventhStreet'', moving shadows that make people disappear invade Detroit. One survivor assembles a gasoline-powered torch to keep them at bay, then asks his companion for her lighter. She realizes she'd left it behind at their previous hiding place, so both have to race the shadows into a nearby clinic where she used to borrow matches from one of the nurses.

* ''Film/TheColony2013''. As they're pursued across a bridge by the cannibal tribe, Briggs tries to blow it up with dynamite, but the fuse doesn't light easily and blows out when he plants it, [[spoiler:forcing him to go back and blow it up himself in a HeroicSacrifice.]] And it doesn't light easily the second time, either.
* In ''Film/AtomicShark'', a grief-maddened supporting character who's just seen her boyfriend reduced to chum [[FreakOut loses it completely]], screams at the heroine that it's all ''her'' fault, and grapples said heroine while attempting to light the fuses on a bunch of dynamite. The heroine blows out the lighter's flame before her attacker can complete her misdirected TakingYouWithMe, and keeps doing so until the distraught woman's hold loosens and she can counterattack.
* In ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'', Jill attempts to blow up some infected guard dogs with the kitchen gas supply at Angie's school. The matchbook she tosses is extinguished by the breeze of being thrown before it can ignite the gas, so Alice steps in to throw a lit cigarette and set off the blast.
* ''Film/Water1985''. When the Cascara Liberation Front seize the well, Michael Caine's character threatens to blow everyone up using the dynamite strapped to his colleague, only he can't get his cigarette lighter to work. When he does, the man wearing the explosive vest keels over in a dead faint.
* In ''Film/OzarkSharks'', the young heroine canoes out to a raft from which she intends to blow up the man-eating bull shark with a firework cannon. The shark bumps the platform from underneath, causing her to drop her lighter overboard and necessitating a DesperateObjectCatch when her father tosses her another from the lakeshore.

* In ''Film/TheThing1982'', when [=MacReady=]'s blood test exposes one of the others as a Thing, he attempts to burn the revealed alien with the flamethrower. Naturally ''that's'' when the flamethrower's fuel line kinks and it produces only small puffs of flaming gas.
* In ''Film/ScoutsGuideToTheZombieApocalypse'', Augie's lighter runs dry when he tries to light the bomb. [[spoiler: Which is a good thing, because it buys Denise time to show the three scouts the way to safety.]]
* It takes an alarmingly-long time for Moses in ''Film/AttackTheBlock'' to light the firework he uses to [[spoiler: set off a gas explosion in his flat and blow up the pack of aliens]].

* ''Film/PitchBlack'' has a Hard-To-''Re''light-Fire moment, when the rain extinguishes nearly all of the survivors' torches and they [[DarknessEqualsDeath frantically attempt to reignite the others]] with the only one still lit.
* ''Film/Firestorm1998'': After plunging into the river, Jesse tries to light a signal fire by striking rocks together. While he generates sparks, he cannot get the fire to light. He then looks over at Jennifer, who already has her fire going. She then smugly holds up a lighter.
* ''Film/SkyBandits'': When Barney and Luke attempt to blow the bridge over the canyon to prevent the {{Posse}} catching up with them, Barney plants the dynamite in the middle of the bridge, but then cannot find any matches. He calls to Luke desperately for matches, and Luke provides him with a single match. Barney lights the fuse, which then burns out with detonating the dynamite. Barney is reduced to setting off the dynamite by shooting it. Luke later reveals he had a whole box of matches and was just messing with Barney. This also marks the first instance of the film's RunningGag of Barney never having a match when he needs one.
* ''Film/{{Husk}}'': When Scott attempts to ignite the gasoline soaked cornfield, Chris's lighter—which has been working perfectly up till now—suddenly refuses to light.
* In ''Film/{{Jungle}}'', it takes multiple attempts, and several agonizing seconds, for Yossi's lighter to light when he is attempting to ignite his AerosolFlamethrower.
* In ''Film/QuestForFire'' the prehistoric tribe obtains fire from lightning strikes or volcanoes, but can't make it themselves. When the fire goes out, three of them have to go on a journey to find a new source.
* In ''Film/TheGhostAndMrsMuir'', Mrs. Muir tries to light a candle, but the ghost keeps blowing out the matches.
* ''Film/TheFifthElement'': Dallas gets down to one chance to activate the Fire stone.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[Creator/AbbottAndCostello The Time Of Their Lives]]'', when Costello (the ghost of a tinker from the American Revolution) struggles in vain to light the tapers of a chandelier and a table lamp with a match, not understanding that they're ''electric'' candles.

* Creator/JackLondon's short story "Literature/ToBuildAFire" (1908). A man in the Yukon tries to build a fire in -75 degree Fahrenheit weather. While the man actually has plenty of matches, he winds up lighting them all at once when fumbling with his frozen fingers, which eventually causes his death by freezing.
* ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'': after the heroes are washed up on a desert island, one finds he has a still-dry match. He's afraid to use it, as he's certain he'll scratch it too hard, wasting it. Later they figure out how to light fires with a magnifying glass.
* The protagonist of John Flanagan's ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' attempts this in "The Burning Bridge" on the titular structure, is successful but is captured and later enslaved by the {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s.
* In the ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series both Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal people know how to make fire but it's a long, tedious process involving rubbing two sticks together. The Neanderthals find it easier to just carry a burning coal everywhere they go. Ayla discovers making sparks using flint & iron pyrite, which makes making fire magically easy.
* This comes up a few times in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' when Gandalf isn't around to help them (usually to help make it clear how uncomfortable Bilbo is). One of the dwarves is noted as being particularly good at lighting fires but still unable to succeed.
* Another case comes up on Caradhras in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. The major characters are attempting to build a fire in a snowstorm, but as might be expected in such a situation, it doesn't go well. It takes Gandalf using his wizard magic to get it to light. He's a bit annoyed, because:
-->"If there are any to see, [[MagicIsAMonsterMagnet then I at least am revealed to them]]. I have written ''Gandalf is here'' in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin."

* Wilderness-survival programs like ''Series/DualSurvival'' often play it for drama when their hosts' attempts to get a campfire started aren't immediately successful.
** Often specifically averted on ''Sereis/NakedAndAfraid'' when the survivalist chooses a fire starter as their one survival item. Sometimes they don't work, though...
* ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' has confronted this trope several times, when their attempts to light up a PowderTrail, pooled gasoline, methane-filled outhouse or the like have failed repeatedly. During the testing of one myth, the Build Team attempts to start a fire with the tried-and-true "rubbing two sticks together" method...and they fail miserably, almost leading them to declare it a myth that they've just busted.
-->'''Kari Byron''': It ''is'' possible to start a fire this way; it's been documented over and over. We just really suck at it.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has both straight and meta-examples: As salting and [[KillItWithFire burning the remains]] are their go-to method for getting rid of ghosts, most episodes have the heroes lighting at least one fire. It's usually easy, but in the episode at the ''Supernatural'' convention, cosplayers have to actually act as the ghost hunters they're dressed as. Among other problems, they have difficulty getting their lighter to light and comment that Dean never has this problem.
** Then in the outtakes, they use that scene to preface a whole lot of clips of Dean's actor failing to get his lighter to light.

* ''{{Series/Arrow}}''. ("The Odyssey") In a flashback scene to when they were stranded on Lian Yu island, Slade Wilson is watching Oliver Queen as he vainly rubs two sticks together.
-->'''Oliver:''' Well, you know, you're welcome to help.
-->''(Slade produces zippo lighter)''
-->'''Oliver:''' I've been working on this for two hours!
-->'''Slade:''' I know. I was watching you. [[TheGadfly Thank you for the entertainment.]]

* Chakotay from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' demonstrates that, despite being a MagicalNativeAmerican, he's "the only Indian who can't light a fire by rubbing two sticks together." Until he gets the idea to use hair as kindling.
* Captain Archer from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' skips the stick-rubbing part and just uses a phaser.
* In the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Twenty Klicks," [=McGee=] tries to start a fire via stick rubbing, until Gibbs produces a lighter.

* Played for dark humor on ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', when the Maniax attempt to light a gasoline-soaked school bus full of cheerleaders on fire. First Jerome's lighter fails him repeatedly, and then Dobkins gets knocked out by Detective Gordon before ''he'' can get a spark out of it.
* ''Series/TheGoodies''. In "Scoutrageous", after getting thrown out of Tim's Scout platoon, Bill and Graham become rogue Scouts who start shaking people down for money.
--->'''Bill:''' [[ShameIfSomethingHappened What a pity it would be]] if it were to...catch fire. I mean if I were to accidentally rub these two sticks together...
** Thanks to their efforts the Scouts are declared an illegal organisation, and Tim Brooke-Taylor tries to [[FieryCoverup burn all his Scout gear]] using the two sticks method, but has less success than Bill. Graham obligingly hands Tim a cigarette lighter...which Tim proceeds to [[ComicallyMissingThePoint rub against one of the sticks.]]
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': When Steve and Carl are lost in the woods when cutting down a Christmas tree. Steve has three matches in his survival kit. When Carl lights the first, Steve sneezes it out, but got the firewood lighted on the second try.

* In mobile game "Day R Survival" the in-game time of setting up a campfire depends on a tool used: matches, lighters, torches and such take between 5 and 15 minutes, flint kindles a fire in half an hour while using nothing but pieces of wood will require you to spend three hours on it.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'': The opening segment sees Lara Croft escape from a cave into a torrential downpour. She recovers survival gear from her crashed boat and lights a campfire with the last match in the box, setting up the ''Main/SavePoint'' system of the game.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'' cartoon "Wags to Riches", Spike tries to kill Droopy by opening all the gas lines in the room and offering him a cigar and lighter. He runs out and waits for the inevitable explosion, but when nothing happens, he looks through the keyhole and finds Droopy still fumbling with the lighter. Spike runs back inside and lights the cigar himself, but when he turns around to give it to Droopy, he is gone. A second later, the room explodes.

** Not helped by the fact that very few people even know how to do this, any more - or even that it takes a bit more than just two sticks to do anywhere near efficiently.

** Also, you can stack the wood up, with space between the logs, to get it off the ground and allow it to dry out. Thus, you'll have a ready supply of dry fuel after a few hours or a day. And don't forget that while a ''log'' is hard to light on fire, a pile of dry leaves or paper is not nearly so difficult. Light the leaves, use them to ignite some twigs, use those to get some sticks burning, and work your way up until you have a log burning.
* This can happen to people who assume hair is more flammable than it actually is, and try to use it as kindling. This never works because hair is made mostly of keratin, which is a protein which contains a lot of cysteine. Disulphide bonds link thiol groups on cysteine molecules together, which stabilises the protein and makes it difficult to decompose.

And fuses, [[PowderTrail trails of powder]], bonfires or explosive gases never, ever light when you need them. Matches get dropped or blow out, and lighters spark in vain, their butane exhausted. An unprepared would-be pyro may even remember everything they need to start a blaze, ''except'' the means of ignition. Whether it's necessary to [[KillItWithFire incinerate the monster]], blow up the villains' DoomsdayDevice, kindle a campfire to avoid [[KillItWithIce freezing to death]], or even [[TakingYouWithMe go out in a literal blaze of glory]], no fire in fiction ignites easily if RuleOfDrama is better served by it refusing to do so.

* Creator/JackLondon's short story "Literature/ToBuildAFire" (1908). A man in the Yukon tries to build a fire in -75 degree Fahrenheit weather. He fails, which eventually causes his death by freezing.

* Simply finding the materials to light a fire is a common challenge in many inventory-based casual games.

Supertrope of DownToTheLastMatch. Sister trope to DangerousKeyFumble and MyCarHatesMe. CigarFuseLighting, CouldntFindALighter, and ReusableLighterToss all subvert this trope via RuleOfCool. Played straight in many a KidsWildernessEpic or HorribleCampingTrip.

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