“There’s also the smell of cooking food to contend with. That goes a distance too.”
In the case you speak of, I imagine they were cooking outdoors. I will be cooking inside the house and can close windows and doors. I have several ways to cook outdoors but that would be after my inside fuel source was gone, which is after a year or more.
Actually they weren’t cooking outdoors. But it was early September in MS and the temps were in the 90’s. I defy you to cook indoors in that heat with no electricity and the windows closed. They were using those little heat packs that come with MRE’s.
The zombies won’t get you. Heat stroke might though... :P