# Presentation: 557874

## Land Survival

- Developed as part of the National Emergency Services Curriculum Project

## Survival Needs

**Survival Needs**

**Food**
**Water**
**Shelter**
**Positive Mental Attitude**

## Food

- Most healthy people can go without for a week to 10 days, depending on the conditions
- Ground Team Members should be carrying at least a few meals when they go out, and normally don’t use them

## Water

- Can go without for only a few days at most, depending again on the conditions

- Personnel require greater amounts of water in warmer climates
- Personnel actually working will require more water than those sitting idle

**Notes:**
Water is one of your most urgent needs in a survival situation. You can‘t live long without it, especially in hot areas where you lose water rapidly through perspiration. Even in cold areas, you need a minimum of 2 liters of water each day to maintain efficiency.
More than three-fourths of your body is composed of fluids. Your body loses fluid as a result of heat, cold, stress, and exertion. To function effectively, you must replace the fluid your body loses. So, one of your first goals is to obtain an adequate supply of water.

## Water Purification

- If stuck in the field for a longer period, team members may need to gather and purify water if they don’t have enough
- Several methods are available to purify water in the field
- Boiling (ten minutes)
- Improvised or Commercial Filters
- Chemicals (iodine based tablets normally)

## Water Transpiration Bag

**Notes:**
Heavy dew can provide water. Tie rags or tufts of fine grass around your ankles and walk through dew-covered grass before sunrise. As the rags or grass tufts absorb the dew, wring the water into a container. Repeat the process until you have a supply of water or until the dew is gone.

## Slide 7

**Notes:**
You can use stills in various areas of the world. They draw moisture from the ground and from plant material. You need certain materials to build a still, and you need time to let it collect the water. It takes about 24 hours to get 0.5 to 1 liter of water.
Aboveground Still
To make the aboveground still, you need a sunny slope on which to place the still, a clear plastic bag, green leafy vegetation, and a small rock (Figure 6-6).
To make the still—
Fill the bag with air by turning the opening into the breeze or by “scooping” air into the bag. Fill the plastic bag half to three-fourths full of green leafy vegetation. Be sure to remove all hard sticks or sharp spines that might puncture the bag.
Place a small rock or similar item in the bag. Close the bag and tie the mouth securely as close to the end of the bag as possible to keep the maximum amount of air space. If you have a piece of tubing, a small straw, or a hollow reed, insert one end in the mouth of the bag before you tie it securely. Then tie off or plug the tubing so that air will not escape. This tubing will allow you to drain out condensed water without untying the bag. Place the bag, mouth downhill, on a slope in full sunlight. Position the mouth of the bag slightly higher than the low point in the bag. Settle the bag in place so that the rock works itself into the low point in the bag.

## Solar Still

**Notes:**
Belowground Still
To make a belowground still, you need a digging tool, a container, a clear plastic sheet, a drinking tube, and a rock (Figure 6-7). Select a site where you believe the soil will contain moisture (such as a dry stream bed or a low spot where rainwater has collected). The soil at this site should be easy to dig, and sunlight must hit the site most of the day.
To construct the still—
Dig a bowl-shaped hole about 1 meter across and 60 centimeters deep. Dig a sump in the center of the hole. The sump’s depth and perimeter will depend on the size of the container that you have to place in it. The bottom of the sump should allow the container to stand upright. Anchor the tubing to the container’s bottom by forming a loose over-hand knot in the tubing. Place the container upright in the sump. Extend the unanchored end of the tubing up, over, and beyond the lip of the hole. Place the plastic sheet over the hole, covering its edges with soil to hold it in place. Place a rock in the center of the plastic sheet. Lower the plastic sheet into the hole until it is about 40 centimeters below ground level. It now forms an inverted cone with the rock at its apex. Make sure that the cone’s apex is directly over your container. Also make sure the plastic cone does not touch the sides of the hole because the earth will absorb the condensed water. Put more soil on the edges of the plastic to hold it securely in place and to prevent the loss of moisture. Plug the tube when not in use so that the moisture will not evaporate.

## Filtration

- Filtration Tri-pod

- Commercial Filter

- Hanging Filtration

- Filter made from trouser leg

**Notes:**
WATER FILTRATION DEVICES
If the water you find is also muddy, stagnant, and foul smelling, you can
clear the water—
By placing it in a container and letting it stand for 12 hours.
By pouring it through a filtering system.
Note: These procedures only clear the water and make it more palatable. You
will have to purify it.
To make a filtering system, place several centimeters or layers of filtering material such as sand, crushed rock, charcoal, or cloth in bamboo, a hollow log, or an article of clothing.
Remove the odor from water by adding charcoal from your fire. Let the water stand for 45 minutes before drinking it.

## Shelter

**Shelter**

- The type of shelter required depends on current conditions and clothing being worn by survivor
- Needs to meet the user’s needs for the duration expected
- Can use materials readily available in the wilderness or equipment packed into the field
- Refer to discussions in Campsite Selection lecture for additional information

## Poncho Shelters

- It takes only a short time and minimal equipment to make a shelter from a poncho.
- You need a poncho, 2 to 3 meters of rope or parachute suspension line, three stakes about 30 centimeters long, and two trees or two poles 2 to 3 meters apart.
- Before selecting the trees you will use or the location of your poles, check the wind direction. Ensure that the back of your lean-to will be into the wind.

## Poncho Shelters Continued

**When using a poncho for a shelter, tie off the hood first.**
**Pull the drawstring tight, roll the hood longways, fold it into thirds, and tie it off with the drawstring.**
**If you plan to use the lean-to for more than one night, or you expect rain, make a center support.**
**For additional protection from wind and rain, place some brush, your rucksack, or other equipment at the sides of the lean-to.**

## Poncho Shelters Continued

- Use a drip stick (about a 10-centimeter stick) to each rope about 2.5 centimeters from the grommet. These drip sticks will keep rain-water from running down the ropes into the lean-to. Tying strings (about 10 centimeters long) to each grommet along the poncho’s top edge will allow the water to run to and down the line without drip- ping into the shelter.

## Poncho Tent

## Poncho Lean-to

## A-Frame Shelters

## Lean-to Shelters

## Field Expedient Shelters

## Field Expedient Shelters

## Snow Shelters

## Snow Shelters Continued

## Swamp Bed

## Desert Shelters

## Slide 24

## Desert Shelters Continued

## Positive Mental Attitude

- In any survival situation you have to want to live to do so.  There are many cases of people that “shouldn’t have survived” living, and the field expert expiring in the field attributed to their individual “will to live”
- Never Give Up!

**Notes:**
It takes much more than the knowledge and skills to build
shelters, get food, make fires, and travel without the aid of
standard navigational devices to live successfully through a
survival situation. Some people with little or no survival
training have managed to survive life-threatening circumstances.
Some people with survival training have not used
their skills and died. A key ingredient in any survival situation
is the mental attitude of the individual(s) involved.
Having survival skills is important; having the will to survive
is essential. Without a desk to survive, acquired skills
serve little purpose and invaluable knowledge goes to waste.

## Fire Building

- Fire is not a necessity to live but can calm or sooth survivors, and makes things much more livable
- Boil Water
- Cook Food
- Keeps the mind occupied
- If you build it, you put it out

**Notes:**
You need three types of materials (Figure 7-4) to build a fire—tinder, kindling, and fuel.
Tinder is dry material that ignites with little heat —a spark starts a fire. The tinder must be absolutely dry to be sure just a spark will ignite it. If you only have a device that generates sparks, charred cloth will be almost essential. It holds a spark for long periods, allowing you to put tinder on the hot area to generate a small flame. You can make charred cloth by heating cotton cloth until it turns black, but does not burn. Once it is black, you must keep it in an airtight container to keep it dry. Prepare this cloth well in advance of any survival situation. Add it to your individual survival kit.
Kindling is readily combustible material that you add to the burning tinder. Again, this material should be absolutely dry to ensure rapid burning. Kindling increases the fire’s temperature so that it will ignite less combustible material.
Fuel is less combustible material that burns slowly and steadily once ignited. 

## Fire Building Continued

- 7 Steps
- Decide that fire is necessary
- Choose a good fire location and prepare it
- Collect wood for the fire
- Arrange the firewood for burning
- Ignite the tinder
- Add fuel as necessary
- Extinguish the fire

**Notes:**
Always light your fire from the upwind side. Make sure to lay your tinder, kindling, and fuel so that your fire will burn as long as you need it.

## Slide 29

## Alternate First Starting Methods

- Magnifying glass, some eye glasses, lenses from binoculars or other such sources may be used an an alternative method to fire starting.

## Common Fire Arrangements

## Snow-covered Areas

## Extinguishing a Fire

- Fire burns in two basic modes
- Flaming and surface combustion (represented by the fire triangle)
- Flaming combustion (represented by the fire tetrahedron/pyramid)
- Break the triangle or pyramid to put it out

- - Remove the fuel	- Reduce the heat
- - Remove the oxygen	- Interfere with the chemical reaction

## Fire Triangle vs. Fire Pyramid

**Fire Triangle**

**Fire Pyramid**

## Using a Fire Extinguisher

- Use the right type
- Class A: Common combustibles
- Class B: Flammable liquids and gases
- Class C: Electrical fires
- Class D: Flammable metals

## Using a Fire Extinguisher Continued

- Follow the acronym PASS
**P**ull
**A**im
**S**queeze
**S**weep

## Extinguishing Outdoor Fires (Campfires)

- Keep personnel and equipment upwind and ready to move
- Use water if available
- Don’t throw away drinking water if not easily replenished
- Splash, spray, or sprinkle water on the fire
- Don’t pour all at once

## Extinguishing Outdoor Fires (Campfires) Continued

- Break up material and continue adding water until all signs of flames and glowing embers are gone
- If water is not available, or in combination with water, throw soil, sand, etc. While breaking up burned materials

## Extinguishing Outdoor Fires (Campfires) Continued

- Using care, place your hand close to the burned area to check to see if cool
- Campfires, signal fires, etc., must always be completely extinguished and cool to the touch before leaving them
- Efforts to extinguish a brushfire should only be attempted if the fire is very small, there is little or no wind, and an escape route is available.  If in doubt, retreat and call the authorities

## Land Survival Tasks

- Ground Team Members
- O-0601: Conduct Actions if Lost
- O-0602: Locate Natural Water Sources
- O-0603: Prepare a Natural Shelter
- O-0604: Build a Fire
- O-0605: Extinguish a Fire

## QUESTIONS? 

**THINK SAFETY!**