Posted on 01/12/2020 6:56:57 PM PST by Hojczyk
The cabin roof caught fire around 1 or 2 a.m., Tyson Steele said. That’s when the first jolt of terror seized him and spurred him to action. He leapt out of bed, pulled on his felt-lined pac boots, and stumbled out the door. The temperature was 15 degrees below zero, but Steele hardly noticed. Standing outside he looked up at the roof and saw flames lighting the sky.
The 30-year-old homesteader figures the date was either December 17 or 18. He’s not certain because he’d been living alone since September in a remote corner of the Susitna Valley. Miles and miles of forests, hills, rivers, and lakes separated him from the road system.
He had no snowmachine. And his nearest neighbor was 20 miles away, in the tiny community of Skwentna. Steele’s only way in or out of the wilderness was by air charter.
As he rushed back into his home, Steele was met by an explosive ball of flame. He knew immediately that the decisions he made within the next few seconds would determine whether he survived until dawn.
What he couldn’t know was that these would be the first in a series of life-or-death decisions he would be forced to make until the Alaska State Troopers’ Helo 3 arrived to rescue him more than 20 days later.
Hours after the rescue, I sat with Steele at the Alaska State Troopers’ Aircraft Section Hangar at Lake Hood. Troopers pilot Cliff Gilliland and Tactical Flight Officer Trooper Zac Johnson, who’d conducted the rescue in response to a welfare check request from friends of Steele’s, had set him up with a shower and accommodated his request for a long dreamed-of “McDonald’s Combo Meal No. 2.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dps.alaska.gov ...
On of the things that were mentioned by more than a few writers:
1) Have an fire escape hatch by the bed (either sleep under a window or have an acutal hatch built into the wall or sleep next to the door).
2) Have a stash of emergency goods (a bug out bag) away from the cabin.
3) Have food stores placed in different areas.
The idea is that bad things happen to a cabin (fire, avalanche, robbers, etc...), so you have to be ready to leave the cabin (and everything in it) fast.
Why is your link a PDF file when the posted story reads as something of a novel writer?
“I had a piece of
Birch Bark,,,”
.
Damn.
“He knew immediately that the decisions he made within the next few seconds would determine whether he survived until dawn.”
Let’s hope he’ll reconsider his decision to live 20 miles from the nearest neighbor in a subzero climate.
Too bad about the dog.
I can't recommend them highly enough.
Wow. Seems like a cool guy. Glad it didn’t turn out like Christopher McCandless.
He should write a book.
Thanks for the recommendation, will look them up.
Lucky he made it. he is a goof. That narrative was a painful read.
You’re a lot more alone than you imagine. Same like everyone.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/g7ArZ7VD-QQ
True story.
Call things by their right name.
I would hope anyone homesteading today would have smoke detector in place and possibly consider saving up a for a sat phone.
Hiemo Korth and his wife are the last legal residents living in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They keep an insulated tent with a wood stove a couple of hundred feet away from their log cabin and call it the lifeboat.
“When it’s 50 below zero and the cabin burns down you have to have a place to go to or that’s it.”
There’s a movie called Never Cry Wolf it was filmed in the 80s and was about a college professor that was assigned to study wolves in Alaska, he gets stranded. It’s a good movie!
I bought his book and watched the series. Amazing
I remember that film, it starred a guy who played in “American Graffiti,” can’t recall his name.
I watched that some time ago and watched it again as I really enjoyed it the first time. Thanks....
Added to this a secondary shelter complete with heat and food items.
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