We can trace the existance humans useing fire as far as 400,000 years ago. This meant that the first humans to channel fire was Homo Erectus. There is evidence of controlled fires in China, Hungary, and France.
The main reason fires existed first in these areas is because of the abundance of ice and cold during the ice age. People in Africa would not have needed fire as much as northern people would have.
The question still remains however, how did the first people's create and channel fire so that it could be used? We beleive that Homo Erectus may have obtained charcole or burning stick from natural burning fires and used them to make fires elsewhere.
This method was used for thousands of years until humans began to create fire from scratch. It is beleived that the first created fires werent until 10-15 thousand years ago. It is thought that rubbing two sticks together was the first means of creating fire from scratch. In any case this was humans first technological conquest as far as energy is concerned.
Fire was very important and still is. It is posible that because fire was discoverd and channeld that we are here today. It is because of fire that we were able to cook food, keep warm through the ice age and keep preditors away.
Thanks to fire we are now able to keep warm, make pottery, cook food, boil maple syrup, and many other things that would be impossible without the discovery of fire.
When talking about fire it is important to understand its chemistry. Fire is pretty simple. All it requires to work is fuel (usually wood), Oxygen, Heat and a chemical chain reaction. When these 4 elements come together you get a fire. Refer to the diagram below.
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