Almost Darwin Award

Burningman Regional Burn, Playa Del Fuego fire conclave. Sunday Night.

I'm between spins and standing somewhat near the labeled fuel dump watching other spinners and having a jolly old time. A girl walks over to one of the fuel buckets and appears to be looking for something. She picks up my lighter, looks at it, and then proceeds to lower the unlit lighter into the bucket of fuel. As she's bringing her thumb back to figure out how to light it I forcefully grab her wrist with one hand and her hand with the other and twist it up away from the bucket.

As sarcastically and condescendingly as I can I say: "Hi! Whatchya doing?"

She's looks up at me stunned and a little frightened that I've grabbed her and mutters....


"I.... just wanted to see what was in the bucket."



[To which I replied "Fire burning fuel. You almost died tonight. Can I have my lighter back please?"]

Woah! The ignorance of some people still astonishes me!

NYC,

You basically risked your health to save hers.
I don't know if this is the case, but I know a few friends who never learnt to read at school. Not many people know as they cunningly can hide the fact. They just get by.
I guess we all have to be prepared for these scary incidents and not just rely on safety barriers (which people can climb over) and warning signs (which may not be understood).

Much respect to you NYC
and thanks for sharing

Malcolm

Hahaha...

Sorry, I know it was a serious situation, but I cant help laughing at it.

It's the hardest part of group fire spinning is to make sure that someone is always keeping an eye on the fuel dump.

Just have a look at the REAL darwin awards site ( especially the one about the gas company employee) for what stupid things people do when they DO know whats in the bucket.

Also, the fact that a sign is there doesnt mean that people who CAN read the sign, WILL read the sign...

Be honest, how many of us have, at leats once in our lives, PUSHED on a door that said PULL...

NYC...good spotting, man, and pleased to hear neither of you got hurt...can i be rude and ask what fuel was in the bucket???

You can ask.... but it makes a better story if you don't know it's lamp oil. And it was a small paint can of about an inch of lamp oil. And the small paint can was in a larger drum with a cover to contain it should anything happen and the small fuel tank caught. And there were two fully uniformed firemen in fully enclosed fireproof suits with fire hoses standing by. And it was in the far corner of the field. [C'mon, you know I'm Captain Safety.]

So pretty much there was no way she could have actually died.

Fine. Ruin my story.

Jerk.

Still, she did try to put a lighter in a bucket labeled "Fuel Dump" that she SAW firespinners were using as fuel.

well, it was a good story anyway!

LMAO

yes it was a good story either way NYC

That story reminds me of an incident that occurred at a doof a few years back.

A car load of off-their-faces boys (with whom I was unfamiliar) ran out of petrol as they arrived at the party. With no jerry-can of fuel in sight, they realised that they would need to siphon (sp?) petrol from another vehicle in order to start their car. Logic told these boys that they would be better off sorting all this out at the start of the night rather than trying to deal with it 12 hours and countless intoxicants later... so, they started siphoning. However, due to it being night-time and considerably dark, they had a hard time seeing what they were doing. So, in a moment of absolute genius, one of them decides to hold a lit cigarette lighter to illuminate the situation.... The guy who was siphoning got a burnt face and the engine of the car caught on fire... idiots. All this while we are in the middle of the australian bush, at least 100kms from any sort of emergency services. *slaps stupid boys*