In an emergency, fire is a necessary tool for warmth and light, purifying water and cooking food. An emergency response specialist, Mike Neilson, is teaching the Provo community this vital skill: how to make a fire to increase emergency preparedness.
Fire is a fundamental tool that has shaped human survival for hundreds of thousands of years. But today, with the strike of a match, it is easy to take fire for granted. However, in a survival situation, knowing how to make a fire might be the difference between life and death.
“I think it would be very helpful if they knew how to cook over fire, but to cook over fire, you need to know how to make a fire,” Neilson said.
From cooking a meal to staying warm, fire is an essential resource when modern conveniences are not available.
“Post-disaster, I worked for the Red Cross for 12 or 13 years. I’ve been in mountain rescue for 20 years,” Neilson said.
The survivor specialist and instructor for this course says his experience responding to disasters showed him how important basic survival skills can be, especially if the power goes out or infrastructure is damaged.
“And there's no reason for them to suffer,” Neilson said.
The free survival skills class teaches people in the Provo community what they need to know about starting fires and preparing for survival. Richard Ivia attended a class with his sons, where they learned about preparing wood, lighting matches, and various ways to build a fire.
“We started out using the sun to start a fire. There are different ways to survive,” Ivia said.
For Ivia, he finds value in his sons learning the same skills he did growing up.
“I wanted my sons to be able to have the same thing, be able to start a fire and to be able to see how it works,” Ivia said.
“I learned how to start a fire. I learned what he did, he was a scout,” Coram Ivia said.
And while starting a fire can be fun, Ivia says the skills could become especially valuable after a major disaster.
“Even from a practical standpoint, you know, if you look at the floods that happened in Nepal and these huge mountains of water came through, and you don't have the things you're typically used to,” Ivia said. “So it gives you a lot of ideas of how to survive, you know, given a giant earthquake or something happens.”
In a survival situation, a simple spark can provide warmth, light, and confidence in whatever comes next.