I’m a firestarter (not)

Talking of fire, I bought a job lot of firelighters from a supermarket (their own brand) and they are almost impossible to light!
They remind me of the tricks you get advertised in the kids’ comics (eg matches that don’t light).
These firelighters reek of petrol (or similar) so they smell like you’d need to stand well back when igniting, but I could light a fire quicker with old copies of the Readers’ Digest (I wonder where they go when the doctors and dentists have done with them?).