Originally Posted By: Susan
There was a box of kindling and some small sticks and some Coghlan's firestarting sticks (sawdust/wax) right beside her, none of which she had attempted to use. Most of the box of matches was gone. The firewood had a few smoke marks on it.

Never underestimate stupid, esp in a survival situation.

Also, when the power goes out and there's three feet of snow on the ground is when some people discover they forgot one little thing... matches.
Sue


At one level I'm inclined to react to such ineffectiveness with derision. But then again things I often consider intuitively obvious are obscure and, conversely, social norms and popular references go over my head.

I'm frequently amazed by what people don't know. A few years back a part-time portable sawmill crew was taking advantage of the scrap wood left by a larger lumber operation. To get the spindly trunks into the portable mill they knock off the branches. One of the guys was using an axe and it ricocheted off a limb and laid open his leg. He was bleeding massively. They held a rag on the gaping wound and he bled to death on the way to the hospital.

How a crew routinely using chainsaws and axes could avoid knowing how to control bleeding is a mystery to me. The concepts of direct pressure, pressure points, and tourniquets aren't difficult to understand. And not difficult to carry out even if there is no specialized first-aid equipment. Tee shirts, a belt and socks will all work in a pinch. A person could learn the basics in ten minutes. But for a lack of ten minutes training by even one person the man died.

It isn't all that uncommon for people who haven't been better informed to think lighting a fire is just a matter of touching flame to wood. The idea that small flames light the small stuff and the small stuff makes big flames that lights the big stuff isn't complicated or hard to understand. But most people need to be told because nobody is born knowing it. Way back every four year old understood this because they watched the adults lighting a fire. People can now live their entire lives without observing anyone light a campfire. Or, as the case shows, having anyone tell them.

The cure for a lack of knowledge is education. But then again lack of education isn't the only reason people don't know things. As Susan points out; people forget things when stressed. I once pushed a truck a good part of a mile before the driver figured out that they needed to have the ignition on. D'oh!!!

When troubleshooting a computer that won't run it is always worthwhile to check to see that it is plugged in and turned on.