Forums > Social Chat > scary fire experience

Posted: 18th May 2003
Well once a confest I was fire breaving and the wind did change direction, that was well freaky cause 1/2 my face caught fire. Had niffty tiger stripe burns though. Experimenting with my own home-made fountain style fireworks gave me third degree burns to a couple of fingers and there was that silly episode where I mistook a bottle of shelac for lamp oil. I must say I love aloe vera!

Posted: 18th May 2003
I wrapped a fire poi round my nek when I first started and set my hair alight that was pretty scary but it got better

An innocent child will usually have the most evil intentions

Posted: 18th May 2003
ive wrapped them round my neck too, found it far too amusing though (damn weed - makes everything funny)!
frazzled some hair too but apart from the yukky smell of burnt hair it was fine!

Make your own happiness by making others happy [Ikeda]

*they used to read me stories, as though my dreams were boring*

Posted: 18th May 2003
I watched a factory burn down near my house when i was seven.

explains alot aboot me, dunnit?

Jeff (a firetwirler) stuck his foot in a fire pit last easter confest, and a small child ..erm stuck his hand in a fire pit the previous confest.

no marshmellows were harmed in the making of this post.

Laugh Often, Smile Much, Post lolcats Always

Posted: 18th May 2003
hmmm... one stupid incident, have to say it was quite funny- around the neck roll thing w staff, went wrong. I stopped the staff from hitting my face by slapping it with my hand, only managed to stop it rather than hit it away. Then pushed it off my shoulder and burnt my palm in the process. Went down to A&E and guess what they gave me to put on it- paraffin oil cream!!!
hat-on-fire, also v funny.

Your life is ending one minute at a time...
So live it.

Posted: 18th May 2003
Besides sacraficing some eyelashes and brows to the gods of fire whilst teething it have managed to avoid sig burns (good)

Did have thing few months back.. Myself and a mate whilst happily mellowed decided at 2 in the morn that the lakeside on uni campus (which is very pretty, and quiet)was a reasonable quest destination.. Suffice to say i decided to bring along fire eating stix and plenty of fuel.. Anyway, i figured in such a pretty place by a lake that an impressive blast was the way to go Which succeeded in waking every bloody duck in vicinity (quite freaky in itself).. So sat back chilled, and waited for dux to do same when we noticed fire engine speeding down main road near campus, pulling into campus, and heading down to the lake side - so we bolted and hid wimpish yeah but the fear had set in and was freakin' out... Unfortunately managed to corner ourselves too so had to sit and wait for 45 minutes for them to go away... pARaNoia reigned supreme (wish i could say i learnt my lesson, guess i'll just stick to staff next time)

taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco taco Damn those MexICan BANdits taco taco taco taco TACOFICATION taco taco taco taco taco taco

Posted: 18th May 2003
I got caught in a petrol explosion when I was about 10. Suffered 3rd degree burns to 30 % of my body. Lost count of the amount of skin grafts/operations I have had.

That scary enough for ya?

So much fire, so little body hair...

Posted: 18th May 2003
I once had my head in the gas fireplace as I was lighting it. It lit. My head was in the fireball. Amazingly, I kept my eyebrows.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 18th May 2003
my freind walked by a candle and within moments her rayon dress turned her into a towering inferno of fire, my friends burned themselves trying to put her out. over 80% burned, her life hung by a thread for months, and i firmly believe htat the prayers and reiki done for her by her many many freinds saved her life. the doctors declared her full recovery nothing less than a miracle.

i burned those same stripes on my face, 9 years ago, before i figured out how to blow fire properly. but it wasn't that bad. my troops' one obvious fire mistake(now, i'm not including all the times "balls out sage" has fried herself good, those don't count cuz there's just too many, they're like grains on the beach ). unfortunately my mom was in the audience at the time , poor lady already has a fear of fire, she watched her son fry, and now he is a professional pyro

saw a drunk guy at a regional burning man that took a face dive into a large fire pit. his arm was pretty gruesome. *ahem* luckily i was there to lend my astute expertise and medical direction- i got to see it real close and touch it and poke at it . "does that hurt?" "how about this?" he kept screaming that he didn't like it so i learned- no, don't touch it. and especially don't rub tiger balm on it, trust me it doesn't help

[ 19. May 2003, 18:40: Message edited by: arashi ]

-Such a price the gods exact for song: to become what we sing
-Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
-When the center of the storm does not move, you are in its path.

Posted: 19th May 2003
Scorched my arm with a fire sword, too much fuel.

¿

Posted: 19th May 2003
Blimey... I hope this story will lighten things up.

At Air Cadets we had this trick for polishing our boots by wadging loads of polish on the toecaps and then lighting it briefly to melt it.

Well for some reason this encouraged our flight sergeant to spray deodorant inside his boot and then light it, then run around the room with it gently burning like an oil lamp.

Only at some point he got worried that his boot would catch fire, so he leaned right over the top of it and blew it out.

Needless to say, when he blew he just spread the gas out in a huge ball of flame that enveloped his head.

He was pretty lucky, I guess, only singed his eyebrows.

Magnus... pay it forward

Posted: 19th May 2003
Ha ha ha!

I did that once when i was starting fire, my fuel tin caught alight and I tried to blow it out.

BOOOOOOOOMPH Singed hair, much smaller eyebrows and that sinking feeling in your stomache that means you may have just cheated death or blindness.

Fire is bloody dangerous stuff!

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AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 19th May 2003
Katinca got a fire poi head tied to her wrist once, it was a nasty burn but the aloe vera stopped it scarring.

Pretty scary at the time.

Josh

Posted: 19th May 2003
Got another one. Once when I was busking in the beer garden in Tachles (Mitte Berlin) with some norwidgen lass, the end of her fire club came off. flew sraight into the middle of the crowd, and I saw it strike some-one fair on the noggin. Mortified I dropped my stix and run into the crowd to find the poor soul and apoligize, only to find it was one of us going around with the hat, every-one actually thought it was delibrate but the boy was pissed at us, ha ha ha
That reminds me of yet another horror busking story in Amsterdam my friend was doing chainns and this guy just walked straight into her wearing a puffy white plastic jacket. Fire and synthetik material are such a match made in heaven so his back caught alight! My friend chased after him up the street but he freaked and started legging it, so we're chasing this guy half the lengh of kaisersgraht before he actually realizes he's on fire. another ha ha ha
I've more stories but they don't involve fire, cycalist riding over where you've just done a show, funny catching the wrong end of a cleaver not so funny. Being kicked out of Florence for doing a fire show on the spot where the patron saint got burned at the stake an amusing intilude, having my stix confescated by the cops and thrown into the main fountain in plaza navoro (rome) funny if ya like seeing street performers undies. but busking in general scary/funny fire buisness. sorry I got off the track

Posted: 19th May 2003
i guess fire is like being friends with mr T - respect it and it won't get medievil on you!

on this scary topic, i'd like to know what kind of aloe vera (oil? cream? pot plant?) they keep with their fire kit, if any, and if they use any other post-burn precautions (off topic i know, but a good idea to mention on this of all treads!!)

be safe, or Mr T will pity the fool!!

Laugh Often, Smile Much, Post lolcats Always

Posted: 19th May 2003
hoi,

my scarry experience:

I once had my fire poi wrapped around my wrists doing a butterfly, tying them together in a flaming ball, i calmly walked towards the nearest bucket o water and put my hands in it, the flames extinguished, but some nasty burns, all has healed however

-Pinky do you ponder what I ponder???-Yes Brain, if you start my name with an O it is spelled Oinky

Posted: 19th May 2003
for minor burns (every show) i carry natural burn ointment, vit E, comfrey, etc. with me. if it's a bad bad burn, all you want to do is cover it with a STERILE gauze until medical help arrives. ice will put a bad burn victim into shock, so it's a no no.

-Such a price the gods exact for song: to become what we sing
-Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
-When the center of the storm does not move, you are in its path.

Posted: 20th May 2003
Hrmmm... Well the last 4weeks have been interesting. Ran into the first local person that spins fire, and though his talent is quite impressive, I still haven't gotten use to the weight conversion of wicks and chains.

Since I've started I've had some self-inflicted poi boo boo's. The first day, Elfire neglected to tell me NOT to do wraps directly on the skin with the smaller beginner wicks due to the metal ring which gets EXTREMELY hott. Also that day I pulled back quickly to avoid a tangle and caught myself square in the nose, also experiencing the downside of the lighter, beginner wicks, burnt eyelashes and all.

Other than that just minor burns, and a horrid smell when too cheap to buy perefin, and kerosene is substituted(in desperate times only). Although I did have a butterfly wrap get tangled, which I carefully extruded my leg from...

#1 lesson in poi disaster control... Make sure the camera is positioned directly at the current disaster, then signal the person designated to hold the fire blanket, b/c neat chaos doesn't happen every day.

The fire... The fury... The fun..

Posted: 20th May 2003
I got three quick storys for some lessons learned the hardway.

The first is of this guy, the kind that your first impression tells you he doesn't have nearly enough common sense to cross the street let alone play with fire. Even if he claims he was raised in the circus.

I was following this guy around a very large festival one night when we sat down near the stage area to watch him juggle white gas for abit. Well in his hurry to go juggle he left the lid off of the container he had chosen for the white gas. One thing led to another and the next thing I know I'm sitting in the middle of a 5x10 pool of flaming fuel. After putting myself out with lighting speed I turned to watch as people ran out of the flames and stomped thier shoes out. After the fire was burned out everyone vanished really quick so I guess no one was burned. He had also been drinking jim beam all night.. So lesson one... Don't drink and play with white gas.

A year later, I was planning a feat of insanity. I had wired up two giant 2 foot long strings of steel wool. Earlyer that day I had ran into the same guy again and tired to get him to understand the difference between kerocine and white gas to no avial. I did manage to get though to him about the need for a safe container for the fuel. After nightfall I spun my steel wool insanity wicks into a nearly soild wall of spewing sparks. Near the end I wrapped one around my wrist giving me an instant third degree bracelet. After I got it cleaned up and bandaged and was back at spinning normal poi again. This dude comes running out of the woods screaming that he wished he would have listened to me. He had cut open a beer can put his white gas in there and started his rounds on a belly full of liquior. Needless to say the can cought fire and spilled down his entire arm. Giving him a second degree limb. He was not a happy camper after he sobered up enough for his friends to *force* him to goto the hospital. He spent most of the next day drinking and bitching and passing out.

Lesson two If it hasn't been done before, there's probley a good reason why. Lesson three DON'T PLAY WITH WHITE GAS DRUNK.

Going to be intresting to see what this season brings.

Zoltar how long did you have the nightmares for? That's so amazing that you've choosen to get into this after that happened to you.

Posted: 22nd May 2003
thanks for sharing your scary experiences with fire! yikes! i'll add that i just saw some guy do the weave behind his back with cathedral poi and it wrapped around his wrists! he got out of it pretty quickly though, but it looked scary as hell when i saw it happen.

i've been pretty damn lucky with fire. the only real scary story that i have is when i was doing a burn before a show and this girl came up and started to freak saying "you're finished!" and pinned my arms to my sides while i was still doing fire.

also a week before this incident, i was testing out a pair of fire poi i had made with 1 ft kevlar rope (and three inch chains) and one of them flew off into a pile of dead leaves. that wasn't good. i was running around with the other one still burning and trying to put out the kevlar rope and pile of leaves at the same time!!!!!! and here i was using my shoe that i had spilled kerosene onto to try and put out my mess.................thank GOD no one was around to see this all happen.

I walk the line-- alien sex fiend

Posted: 22nd May 2003
oh yeah... Dwuanos you made me laugh sooooo hard with some of your stories......heeheehee.....

I walk the line-- alien sex fiend