The invention relates to a method for lighting the burners of a furnace for the steam reforming of hydrocarbons during its startup, in which the burners are arranged on two walls that face each other, aligned vertically in the form of columns and horizontally in the form of n rows Ri (with i varying from 1 to n, and i increasing from the bottom to the top of the furnace). According to the method of the invention, the burners are lit according to a lighting sequence constituted of successive steps, all of the burners lit during one step being in a same row Ri, and the order of lighting the rows being chosen so as to improve the homogeneity of the heating in the whole of the furnace.