Most commonly, a small fire of kindling wood is stacked and bigger logs are added to this. The trouble with this, is that as gases are released from the bigger logs, there are no flames at the top to ignite them. They will pollute rather than give heat. There is a solution….place your logs on the bottom of your stove, then place your kindling on top of these. Soon the fire will burn its way down; as the logs heat up and produce gas, there will always be fire on top to ignite them.
This method also works well, as you can start a fire and keep it burning in one step. This is particularly helpful in wood burning stoves when opening the door to add more logs. When the stove is not up to efficient burning temperature, smoke can easily escape back into the room through the open door, when using the usual method of adding kindling before logs.