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29th October 2010, 10:08 AM
Mushroom picker found dead in forest tried to build shelter

by Associated Press

KTVB.COM - October 28, 2010

LOWELL, Ore. -- A 54-year-old Springfield, Ore., mushroom picker found dead after three days of exposure in the Willamette National Forest apparently tried to build a shelter and start a fire.

Lane County Search and Rescue Coordinator John Miller said Wednesday that searchers who found Dodie Throssel's body on Tuesday also found a couple of pieces of bark propped haphazardly in an apparent makeshift shelter. Miller says there was also a hole in the dirt where she tried to make a fire, but no evidence that she ever got anything to burn with her cigarette lighter.

Lane County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Frank Ratti says an autopsy ruled out death from injury. He says final results await toxicology reports due back in a couple of weeks. Searchers followed the sound of Throssel's two barking dogs and found her body in a steep drainage about 2,000 feet from where she parked her car Saturday.

linky (http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Mushroom-picker-found-dead-in-forest-tried-to-build-shelter-106087048.html)

mamboni
29th October 2010, 10:16 AM
Perhaps it was very damp from rain? If ou ever walk through the forest after heavy rain, everything is wet and starting a fire is extremely challenging, even with a lighter. :conf:

Or, this is another example of Darwin's Law at work. :oo-->

willie pete
29th October 2010, 10:22 AM
^^^ Yea, Darwin Law... :D

If I'm going out into woods I don't know or even if I do, my GPS goes with me.. ;D

And they're making them easier and easier to use everyday....

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/gps-homing-device-helps-you-find-your-way-2009022/

Dogman
29th October 2010, 10:30 AM
Perhaps it was very damp from rain? If ou ever walk through the forest after heavy rain, everything is wet and starting a fire is extremely challenging, even with a lighter. :conf:

Or, this is another example of Darwin's Law at work. :oo-->


Probably Darwin,

If you know what to look for there is stuff even after a rain that will burn and you can get a fire going. But you have to have some woods craft training. Finding dry tender is the hard part, but not that hard. Once found the rest is easy.

She probably did not know any woods craft.

zap
29th October 2010, 10:37 AM
Oh heck, I have a hard time with dry wood and a torch! :D

MNeagle
31st October 2010, 08:35 PM
Doesn't mention the overnight lows either. Cold lighters do not work!! Though you should have enough body heat to warm it sufficiently.

Freezing / death to exposure would be a tough way to go. RIP poor gal.

RJB
31st October 2010, 08:53 PM
I've lived off the land for a week at a time in primitive conditions just for the hell of it on several occasions. Some nights I'd make a bow drill fire and the next morning rushed the job so it took me an hour when I had coals going but was too lazy, cold and desparate to gather the proper amount of kindling.

Survival situations are different from regular camping trips. For one there is denial that you will spend the night in the woods. People in panic will deparately crash through the woods late into the evening trying to get back to home. Once in a desparate situation people give up thinking for panic/reacting. Cold, hunger, fear all take it's toll.

After standing for an inspection for an hour in bootcamp in 45F weather, my platoon could not change uniforms dispite having DIs screaming in our faces because our hands couldn't function to unbutton our clothes. After trying to get out of the woods and finally attempting to get a fire going she may not have been able to use the lighter.

There is a part of me that thinks I could have done better than her, but survival situations are different from the controled situations we normally face. I won't judge her, she may have laughed at others too. She was smart enough to have a semblence of a mini-survival kit. In the wrong conditions it could be any of us.

MNeagle
31st October 2010, 09:01 PM
Well said. Cold does incredible things to your brain. Here in the north, we respect that, or we don't live. It's taught VERY early on in every household.

Hillbilly
1st November 2010, 12:07 PM
Starting fires are not easy sometime even in the best of conditions. People need to learn about tinder, how to make it and how to find it and kindling. Otherwise they are never going to get a fire going.

skid
27th November 2010, 09:40 AM
^^^ Yea, Darwin Law... :D

If I'm going out into woods I don't know or even if I do, my GPS goes with me.. ;D

And they're making them easier and easier to use everyday....

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/gps-homing-device-helps-you-find-your-way-2009022/


If you have ever been in the woods with a GPS you will find they don't work very well unless you can find a clearing where you can get a signal to a satellite. To me a compass is a much better tool in that environment.

skid
27th November 2010, 10:03 AM
LOL, That's what most GPS's are used for today. Driving directions :oo-->

freespirit
27th November 2010, 07:51 PM
If you have ever been in the woods with a GPS you will find they don't work very well unless you can find a clearing where you can get a signal to a satellite. To me a compass is a much better tool in that environment.
But a compass does tell you the distance to the nearest Starbucks.



...yeah, but both of them suck for starting fires...lol

seriously though, she could have better prepared herself before the trip, but RJB put it rather nicely...every situation is different...
be prepared, because shit happens!

Awoke
27th April 2011, 05:50 PM
I typically keep a small bottle of accelerant with me in my BOB, filled with paint thinner or something flamable to get started.

freespirit
27th April 2011, 05:56 PM
a small bottle of hand sanitizer works great for fire starter too...i have one in my med bag, and one in the BOB...due to high alcohol content, it will take a spark pretty well.

keehah
27th April 2011, 06:26 PM
Outdoors 101: I carry a (cigarette) lighter in my kit although I never place my trust in it.

Awoke
27th April 2011, 07:01 PM
You can buy Magnesium strikers for about $5 at Canadian tire. I have never made a point of trying to start a fire using only primitive tools. I think I should buckle down and learn how to do it.

I know how theoretically, but not practically.

MrCottonsParrot
27th April 2011, 09:48 PM
fine steel wool and 9 volt battery makes for a nice fire starter.

Son-of-Liberty
27th April 2011, 10:10 PM
I was hiking with a friend one time and we were sort of just winging it so we didn't have a camp spot planned out. Towards the evening there was a pretty heavy rain and everything got soaked. I found some dry material but couldn't get it to stay lit long enough to get a fire started. Eventually I figured out the ground was too wet and put all the tinder on top of a piece of aluminum foil and was able to get the tinder to hold a flame. Had I been in a panic though I may not have thought of that. It would have been a cold night without the fire.

Very poor conditions combined with panic and I could see how someone could succumb to hypothermia even with lighter and burnable materials available.

TheNocturnalEgyptian
6th May 2011, 08:04 PM
If you ARE camping, cooking oil burns pretty well. Rip off a small piece of your shirt, soak it in oil, and light that.

MNeagle
25th July 2012, 05:40 AM
http://screen.yahoo.com/episode-2-manpon-30059128.html


(can't seem to embed vids, but this is a survival method to fire starting that I thought was genius!)