If was a requirement in the past, it's not
anymore. There is a requirement of starting a fire with just one match, though.


Tenderfoot! Why, you young whippursnapper, in my day boy scouts started fires by rubbing their trouser legs together fast enough to set the fabric on fire, then jumped outern 'em before they got burned!

Another fun trick, common in the "old days," when carbide miner's lamps were common, was to take some calcium carbide along. You'd surruptitiously toss the carbide beneath some wet tender, strike a flint over it, and POOF! Calcium carbide, when wet, liberates acytelene gas.