Naturally, it all depends on the situation. Certainly it’s possible, with enough experience, to get a decent night’s rest next to a fire. I’m not anti-fire, heck, I’ve often been called the Fire King (Blast will dispute that).

But here’s my point. Probably millions of people have gone camping and slept in a sleeping bag inside a tent without ever building a fire. If you are dry, have protection from precipitation and wind and have proper insulation, there is no probably no need for an extra heat source to get through the night. But as soon as someone is “surviving”, the laws of physics somehow manage to change.

I guess it’s not surprising. In Deep Survival, one of the examples was a backpacker who took a wrong turn, got separated from his partner and got lost. He was on day one of a multi-day trip with a backpack full of food, a tent and a sleeping bag. But after he realized he was lost he went thrashing around, long after dark, and eventually passed out in the snow. He continued to thrash for another day or two before he finally make himself a meal, set up his tent and went to sleep in his sleeping bag.

In the “Break Down” and “Altoids” videos, both groups started out in a dry environment, practically knee-deep in dry leaves, yet they all felt the need to keep a fire going all night. I think it’s just an “imprint” that people pick up from books, videos and experts.

I’ll bet that more than one person carries steel wool and batteries in their survival kit because they read in a survival manual that that’s one way to start a fire.