To achieve ignition safely and efficiently which can influence the success chances of a fireflood, some typical ignition methods and principles, such as spontaneous ignition, hot fluid injection, electric heaters, chemical methods and downhole burners, were analyzed in this paper. In addition, the suitable reservoir conditions, advantages and disadvantages of various methods were investigated. It turns out that every technique has its own strengths and weaknesses, and some factors including reservoir conditions, native oils, site facilities and available conditions must be considered synthetically to select the most suitable one. Spontaneous ignition is feasible for an oil-bearing stratum where temperature, thickness and reactivity of native oil are suitable. If spontaneous ignition is not desirable or fails to appear, some artificial means are implemented.