"Another reliable heat source for cooking during an emergency is a gas grill. A patio barbecue grill will do nicely, provided you have plenty of fuel. It's a good idea to buy an extra cylinder of propane before a big hurricane strikes, because the roads may be impassable for days. If the emergency is merely a blackout, for which you would have no warning, you shouldn't have trouble buying a tank of fuel anytime you need it. The downside to relying on the patio grill for all your cooking is that it can ONLY be used outdoors. That's okay if it's warm and sunny but not too practical when it's cold, raining, or snowing outside, or when you just want to make a hot cup of tea before bed. (Never use a gas grill inside your home or garage.)
If you happen to have a wood-burning stove that allows you to cook on top of it, you can get by with this, as long as you have plenty of wood that can last several days. If you're only using an open campfire, however, problems abound. It takes time to build a wood fire, and once started it doesn't heat food uniformly and much of the fuel goes up in smoke. Whether you're outside or using an indoor fireplace, you will need to rig a way to heat a pot over the flames, so your pots and pans must have handles that won't melt or burn. Whenever you build a fire, use extreme caution. You would bring beaucoup heartache upon yourself if you burned down the neighborhood that had miraculously survived the hurricane.
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