lets go back to square one on this because this subject has come up several times and always go's back to what is used to light a fire when what we really need to know is how to get a fire going and keep it going in the rain.in canoe country a tarp over a smoky fire with a few guys standing around is as common as bugs,you see it all the time.a few times i have lit a heap of birch bark and pine sticks on a aluminum pie plate inside a tent,my big Timberline,and then carried it to the fireplace that has been filled with as dry as i could make wood and covered with a trash bag.the tinder blazing because it was out of the wind and lit in several places was then slid under the firewood and the bag removed at the last second.this trick only works if its just a light drizzle and you have some sort of overhead cover.this is where you have to do lots of saw and ax work to make billets of dry pine,or whatever,and stack them log cabin style until you get a fire that will outpace the rain.more often than not the rain wins out,even forest fires damp down in the rain.this is one reason i went to the Baker Shelter and Coleman stove with extra fuel.with that i had a total shelter and just not a overhead cover and a heat source that was non fail.
OK..back to the subject survival wise..i would say that you need to have cover to make and keep a fire in the rain.a huge bonfire to beat back the rain or a smaller one,or even two you can get between,that you can feed and keep going.
the best place to find the details on how to do this is best found in the older outdoor book,the ones from the pre camp stove days when making a fire was your only course.i have seen some with drawings by Dan Beard on several ways to make and keep a fire in the rain from digging into a dirt bank to cutting and sticking branches in the ground around a fire to make some sort of cover...