Southerner's don't have to pre-heat their campstoves as we do up in Canada when the mercury drops...in order for the stoves to vapourize fuel, we dab a generous amount of the sterno like gel at the burner, light it and it pre heats the internals after pumping up the pressure. If you don't , you get an awful engulfment of flame , pretty to look at but damaging to the stove, melted parts and all... Also, it will start a fire on anything, like the solid fuel tablets....