I will add that even with a road flare proper fire prep is necessary. Just for yucks I used the flare to try get some very green wet wood going- no dice! You still need to get dry or at least dry-ish fuel to successfully make a fire. Under reasonable conditions a person should be able to reliably make fire with five seconds of naked flame. In poor conditions it's great to have a margin of safety by having access to a longer lasting ignition source (like the flare) but you still need to perform your prep properly.