Some good advice

Fire and smoke are part and parcel of the same matter. However, there are methods to control the smoke development considerably. Using a fire-hut makes the need for solving the problem more urgent, as even a rather open hut gets filled with smoke very rapidly, if you stoke the fire incorrectly.

Use DRY firewood cleaved into small pieces. It kindles very fast, burns in flames and is also easier to control than a fire made of big pieces of firewood.

Birchwood develops only a small amount of smoke and smell. Ideal when you want a relatively slowly burning fire. Produces fine embers.

Coniferous wood develops flames very quickly, burns out very fast and leaves a limited amount of embers. (Ideal when baking pancakes).

Various hardwood tree acts very different. The heavy sorts such as beech and oak can develop a good deal of smoke before it’s properly kindled. It’s therefore important to cleave it into finger-thick pieces. The lighter sorts such as poplar and willow are not of interest (unless you have cut down a tree and dried it for firewood usage).

When stoking the fire, you stoke one or two pieces at a time. If you stoke a lot of firewood at a time, the temperature will fall and the gasses from the smoke will not ignite. This will just result in a lot of coughing and red eyes.

The fireplace is also important. A hoisted up fireplace inside the fire-hut provides you with a better exhaustion towards the ceiling than a fire made directly on the floor or in a hollow in the floor. Fires made on the floor take longer getting the right temperature, whereas a fireplace, for instance fitted with leca-nuts in the bottom, very rapidly gains the good, high temperature needed in order to obtain a “smoke-free” fire. (leca is ceramic insulation material).