A few more thoughts:

Everyone is telling you to deflate the tire, but not mentioning why: without deflating, they EXPLODE! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You can get the tires off the rims with two very large screwdrivers and some sweat. By large screwdrivers, I mean those really handy 18" suckers. I've done it, but I broke some fingernails in the process.

I wouldn't bother removing the tires, myself. I would build a good fire, try to find a largish rock and set it right beside the fire (or build the fire next to a rock), and tilt the tire over it at an angle, to reduce the chance of smothering the fire.

If I'm in a survival situation, I'm not going to play with gasoline. I prefer to reduce my chances of becoming a human torch without some intelligent assistance nearby. (Besides, that's a Guy Thing <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />)

Once the tire is burning, stand upwind.

Burning a tire as a signal in the wrong weather is a waste of time and the tire. If you're trying to produce a smoke signal, it won't work on low-pressure days. Low pressure means clouds or rain. The smoke will just sit on the ground and meander around there, and hide under the trees. It won't be very visible from the air, or from any distance.

Smoke signals only work on high-pressure days: clear & sunny.

The best way (IMHO) to make a fast smoke signal is to carry several containers of motor oil with you, and have it ready several feet from your existing fire. When you see a search aircraft (not a jet 6 miles high), pour it onto your fire.

Nearly every kind of plastic burns with a black smoke. You've seen those news fires where black smoke is pouring out of a house? Polyester (plastic) carpet, plastic and plastic-coated furniture, plastic-coated paneling, plastic countertops, etc, all burn black. So your carpeting, and carpet mats & headliner (polyester and thin plastic foam) would all burn black.

Wood, green plant material/leaves and transmission fluid (& maybe antifreeze/coolant) burns with a white smoke. Water poured onto a fire produces white steam and smoke.

I don't know what kind of stuffing modern cars have (I don't have a modern car <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />); if they are polyester, like stuffed toy stuffing, it will burn black. If it's old-fashioned mattress stuffing, it will burn white.

The color of the smoke you produce is most important for its contrast to your surroundings if you have choices. If you need speed, do your best with what you've got. Just don't smother the fire with too much of anything in your excitement.

The best way to heat a small shelter with your fire is probably to have a regular fire with a rock or log reflector behind it in front of your shelter. Or, you could heat some rocks (NOT from a riverbed) and when they're hot, maneuver them into holes you've dug in the floor of your shelter, and cover it with dry sand or dirt. I'm sure wet soil would produce steam, which wouldn't work and would just make you wet, then cold.

"If you were stranded in the Kim's situation, how often would you burn a tire."

Also IMO, every time they burned a tire as a signal, it was a waste of time. Kati Kim said herself that the smoke wouldn't rise, it just spread around on the ground. Low pressure.

Note: nearly every time anyone in the air sees 3 fires in a triangle (try for about 75' apart in an open area) at night or 3 smokes during the day, they're going to report it, even if they don't know anyone is missing. Those are international distress signals. But if you've only got fuel for one fire, do it.

Inserting a question here: magnesium+firestarters= fire. Mag wheels plus fire.... ? Do they burn, or do they require such high heat that they just sit there?

Sue (aka 'Pyro')