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Fool survives for three weeks in Alaskan woods after burning tarp-dwelling down

Have to admit when I saw this story my mind fled to a famous Jack London short story about survival in the Alaskan Wilderness called 'To Build A Fire".
It does not have a happy ending...great story though.
 
Puts me in the mind of The Cremation of Sam McGee.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
 
Myriad said:
In stories like this I look for the second big mistake. All survivors make the first one, as this man certainly did. But after that, he chose the safer option, to shelter in place with his remaining resources, which he carried out successfully. That choice required awareness and patience. Packing out on foot right away could have saved him weeks of hunger and discomfort, but it would been far more risky, because of the winter conditions and because he apparently didn't have much warm clothing left after the fire. He may not have had snowshoes or skis that survived the fire. Some have read his concerns about finding a safe way out as him not knowing which way to go, but it sounds to me more like not risking unfamiliar conditions (a trail or network of trails that he hadn't traversed in winter before because that would be unsafe) and inadequate trail gear.
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I frankly think you're giving him far more credit than is due with this assessment. You characterize the things he did after the fire - namely his sheltering in-place with his remaining resources - as a choice he made, and that he could have chosen to do something different instead, and the fact that he did not was the result of a competent risk assessment on his part.

I can't really agree with that. He didn't merely have "inadequate" trail gear, he had absolutely no trail gear. He had boots but no socks. He had a set of scavenged overalls, but no coat. His food was all cans and jars - heavy and impractical to carry at any rate, but a moot issue since he had no backpack. "Walking out" wasn't an option that he carefully considered and thoughtfully decided against, it was impossible.

In fact there was no "option"; there was nothing left to do at all in the wake of the disaster except stay as close to the stove as possible and eat the remaining food until it ran out, and that's what he did until Lady Luck sent a rescue helicopter his way.
 
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Checkmite said:
I frankly think you're giving him far more credit than is due with this assessment. You characterize the things he did after the fire - namely his sheltering in-place with his remaining resources - as a choice he made, and that he could have chosen to do something different instead, and the fact that he did not was the result of a competent risk assessment on his part.

I can't really agree with that. He didn't merely have "inadequate" trail gear, he had absolutely no trail gear. He had boots but no socks. He had a set of scavenged overalls, but no coat. His food was all cans and jars - heavy and impractical to carry at any rate, but a moot issue since he had no backpack. "Walking out" wasn't an option that he carefully considered and thoughtfully decided against, it was impossible.

In fact there was no "option"; there was nothing left to do at all in the wake of the disaster except stay as close to the stove as possible and eat the remaining food until it ran out, and that's what he did until Lady Luck sent a rescue helicopter his way.
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That's kind of what I was thinking. The article I just read said he had no survival training or anything like that. It was just a series of things working out after the fire.
 
Checkmite said:
In fact there was no "option"; there was nothing left to do at all in the wake of the disaster except stay as close to the stove as possible and eat the remaining food until it ran out, and that's what he did until Lady Luck sent a rescue helicopter his way.
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Lady Luck didn't send the helicopter. People who he had been maintaining contact with and who knew of his situation and did. That's exactly what we're supposed to do when going into the wilderness, make sure that someone knows where you're going and after what length of time of no contact they should contact someone to go looking for you.

The fact that he was rescued was due precisely to the precaution that he took, not luck.
 
Roboramma said:
Lady Luck didn't send the helicopter. People who he had been maintaining contact with and who knew of his situation and did. That's exactly what we're supposed to do when going into the wilderness, make sure that someone knows where you're going and after what length of time of no contact they should contact someone to go looking for you.

The fact that he was rescued was due precisely to the precaution that he took, not luck.
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And setting his tarp home on fire was totally like a "yeah, I meant to do that moment".
 
Roboramma said:
Lady Luck didn't send the helicopter. People who he had been maintaining contact with and who knew of his situation and did. That's exactly what we're supposed to do when going into the wilderness, make sure that someone knows where you're going and after what length of time of no contact they should contact someone to go looking for you.

The fact that he was rescued was due precisely to the precaution that he took, not luck.
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Ummmm...No.
The man was incompetent, stupid, and lucky.

1) He obviously knew nothing about making a proper shelter with an adequate chimney system which was high enough above the roof line so sparks on the roof would not be problem.
2) He did not make an emergency cache with food, clothing, emergency gear, that anyone with half a brain does when living remotely.
3) He did not practice the basic severe cold habit of banking your fire for short term forays out of your camp; Or, letting your fire go out and then pre-stacking your kindling and wood in your fireplace/stove so it only takes one match to get it to start on your return from longer term absences.

As far as your assertion that he had some sort of "check-in" plan with somebody - there is no evidence of that at all. According to the OP - he only called people on a sporadic basis and all he could was hope that someone would miss him and call the authorities.

"Steele had a "crappy" phone that he'd been using to check in with friends and family, but authorities said it was lost in the fire. So he hoped someone would call for a welfare check after they hadn't heard from him. If someone hadn't come by Day 35, he'd set out."
 
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Dr. Keith said:
I thought is was defined by the siding also being the support structure. The corrugated siding usually is self supporting, IIIRC.
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That's a Nissen hut.

The difference between them is the Quonset has a frame that the sidings are attached to.

Looking around it looks to me like non-corrugated huts are still considered Quonset huts, at least people are selling them as such. I think the original Quonset's were corrugated iron, and that may well have been the original design spec, but I expect the naming has morphed to include other materials.
 
dudalb said:
Have to admit when I saw this story my mind fled to a famous Jack London short story about survival in the Alaskan Wilderness called 'To Build A Fire".
It does not have a happy ending...great story though.
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Yes it does, the dog lives ergo happy ending.
 
As he was effectively camping and using a wood-burning stove, wouldn't it have been a usual precaution to have a fire extinguisher with him?
 
theprestige said:
Made it out of what?
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They don't have places to get ******* sheet metal in all of Alaska? They appear to have gotten some pieces there before as there was some at the site. He had made this plan, bought the land from a Vietnam Vet, and made it a point to move thousands of miles to go there. Some are claiming he was a pretty good outdoorsman, or survivalist. Outdoorsman\survivalists don't make sure everything is fully prepared before moving into a remote part of Alaska? Didn't someone earlier in the thread say he got stuff airdropped to him?
 
Ian Osborne said:
As he was effectively camping and using a wood-burning stove, wouldn't it have been a usual precaution to have a fire extinguisher with him?
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The article and statement don't list his full cache of provisions. They are rather short. I think most fire extinguishers would freeze solid in those temperatures unless kept near the fire, where it would have likely been consumed before he could get to it anyway.

The police statement says he was also dodging 500 rounds of shotgun/rifle ammo that were also burning.

Ridicule all you guys like, but he was no fool. He may be a little whacky about living on very little, but that is different thing. The easiest thing in the world is to Monday Morning Quarterback how to have prevented it.

Think about it. Absolutely anything can be corrected in hindsight. He tried to get a fire going quicker and fed it with cardboard, likely because it had gotten damned cold. He knew that was not copasetic and was a lapse of judgement, but his rig had also been functioning without problems for months. It's not like he floundered immediately. I would venture that most posters here would be dead within a few hours after the fire. Surviving in sub zero temps with salvaged provisions is no joke. Even making a snow cave shelter that doesn't collapse on you takes some skill.
 
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