Fire is important for multiple reasons in a wilderness survival situation. Not only can fire be used for cooking food or boiling water to make it safe to drink, but fire also keeps away most predators and keeps you warm if you're stuck out in the wilderness overnight. Cattails are plants commonly found in lakes and rivers that have many amazing uses when it comes to fire. Cattails are found in water right next to shore and grow in large clumps of multiple plants. They are brown and cigar like, with white cotton like fluff inside. The brown ends of cattails stand at the end of tall stalks. The fluffy stuff from inside a cattail makes some of the best dry tinder to start a fire, and can also be used for soft bedding or for insulation in your clothes during cold months. If you have oil or lard on hand, or sticky resin from sappy branches, this can be used to soak a cattail, which will then make an excellent torch that can literally slow burn for hours when done correctly.
Learning to make water drinkable is perhaps the most important of all wilderness survival skills. If you have a survival kit, include either water purification tablets or iodine to help make freshwater drinkable. Starting a fire and boiling the water in a metal container will also help to kill any microorganisms in the water that could be harmful. If you have any bleach, this can be used in an emergency. Add only one cap at a time to a much larger amount of water and smell the water every 15 minutes. If it doesn't smell like bleach, then add another cap. The first time you can smell a hint of bleach, the water is purified. This is always a last resort for purifying water.
Not knowing how to get found can be an overlooked, but fatal, mistake when in the wild. One of the first things you should know is that three loud signals a second apart is the international signal for calling for help. Three whistle blasts, three gun shots or three sounds of a big stick hitting a thick rock or tree trunk. Any rescuers who hears the three sounds should head in your direction. Keeping your arms wide apart in the shape of a V is the signal for needing assistance. Making a giant X or V out of objects also signals to sky crews that help is needed. Waving your arms is often a signal for everything is okay. Making a giant X or V out of objects also signals to sky crews that help is needed. If you start a fire, make sure to throw wet material on it to cause as much smoke as possible.
