In the event that you doubt the need to carry fire-making tools, let me recount a sad story.

We got a call a few weeks ago to find a missing person. A woman with alzheimer's wandered out of her home at about 14:00 +/- 15 minutes. Our call came in at 14:40.

It was 35 degrees, sunny and with a slight breeze. She was wearing a light sweater, no coat. She had wandered off before, trying to "get home" and had been found as far as 3 miles from the house on previous occasions. Although her body was relatively healthy, her mind was shot.

We formed several search teams, Water North, Land North, Water South, Land South and Land West, coordinated by an SAR captain from the police department. I was on Water South, doing a shoreline search on the Delaware River from a boat.

Land North located her body at about 16:30, lying face-down in some shallow water at the bottom of a drained canal.

The coroner said she had been dead about 2 hours, and the cause of death was NOT drowning - it was hypothermia - she apparently died on the side of the canal and her body rolled into the canal basis.

While in her mental state, she could not have made a fire, it does point out the urgency of warmth in an outdoor exposure situation. The best guesses were that she made it about an hour before her body began to shut down, possibly less.

This sad tale reminds me to keep fire-makin's with me - always - because strange stuff happens out there.