During an emergency when you are in the great outdoors, or if a catastrophic disaster hits, you may need to fend for yourself in the wild. To be prepared for those events, you will need to learn skills such as how to build a fire, how to fish or forage for food and how to get access to drinkable water.
How to Build an Emergency Shelter
If you are caught outside during a storm or need to bug out during a crisis, you will need to seek shelter to hide or get out of the elements. If you don’t have a tent with you, you can find shelter in a cave, by climbing a tree or underneath a canopy of bushes. You can quickly construct simple shelters to help keep you warm and dry during a rain or snowstorm.
A debris hut is put together by gathering brush, sticks, leaves and other natural debris. You simply gather it up in a pile and dig out a space just large enough for you to crawl in it. The heat radiating off your body will help heat the shelter and keep you warm and dry.
Another simple accommodation to make is a “lean-to.” Essentially, it is a wall constructed from large sticks you have gathered and tied together with string or fishing line. The wall is held up by other large sticks that are sunk or dug into the ground to make them sturdy enough to hold up the shelter. Once it is constructed, figure out which way the wind is blowing and use the wall to block the wind. Heat your shelter by building a small campfire.
How to Build a Fire
To start the process of building a fire, you will need to gather the necessary materials. You need to have dry tinder, kindling and fuel wood. Tinder is any type of material that will burn and caught fire with just a spark. It could be paper, dry grasses, dry bark, or dry leaves.
Since tinder burns quickly, you will need something more substantial to keep the fire burning. Kindling consists of small dry twigs and dry branches. You have to build a fire up, or it will be smothered out and useless to you. Your kindling must also be dry in order to burn effectively.
Once your kindling is burning, you can start adding fuel wood to the fire to keep it going. Fuel wood consists of larger branches and chunks of wood. It will make your fire burn and last longer.
If you don’t have a lighter or any matches on you, which you should if you have a bug out bag, then you will need a way to catch the tinder on fire. If you wear glasses, you can magnify the sun through the lens to start the tender. You can also use a strip of steel wool and a nine-volt battery to create a spark to light the tinder.
Be smart about fire placement to keep the surrounding bushes and trees from catching fire and worsening your situation. Also, make sure your fire is completely out before leaving the area.
How to Purify Water
If you run out of drinking water, getting a new source will be vital. The body cannot do without water for more than three days. However, even though you may find a lake, river or stream, you don’t want to fill your canteen or bottle and start drinking it. Natural water may have impurities that can make you very ill if you don’t purify the water before you drink it.
The easiest way to purify water is to boil it. By heating the water, you are killing any impurities it may have. Of course, you will need to allow the water to cool down before drinking it, unless you are making coffee or cooking with it.
Water purification tablets and drops are readily available at outdoor sporting goods stores. If you go camping a lot, you should keep a supply of them in your backpack. You should also stock an emergency shelter with purification tables or drops in case you run out of emergency water supplies.