"Firebreather's Lung" or ARDS

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I know Fire Breathing with alcholhol is more dangerous than with parfin from the "blow back" aspect - ie. setting your face on fire - but what about from the ARDS aspect? I would guess alchohol vapor in your lungs is not as dangerous as petrolchemicals, no? Just curious in an acedemic sense since I can envision (non Fire Breathing related) accidents involving alchohol in the lungs and am wondering how seriosly the threat of ARDS should be taken in a case like that.

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Cout your gums kids

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There was this old school guy that would swallow fuels and water and would get a candle really going and then put the fire out with water that he had previously ingested. He was a regurgitator. He died of a heart problem and I think I remeber them mentioning that his occupational hazards contributed to this. I wish I could rember his name. It was black in white footage though. Your body ingests the fuel one way or another. fyi

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His name was Hadji Ali. He would drink something like 2 gallons of water, a cup of Kerosene, spit the Kero to fuel a fire then spit the water to put it out. You can see it in the 1931 Laurel and Hardy film Politiquerias. And I would like to point out...it is an illusion. It is not real and should not be used as a reference. Knowing fire safety a person knows that water does not extinguish fuel fires, it spreads them. And that while oil and water don't mix, it is hard to seperate liquids in the regurgitation act. I know several people who do the real thing, and know that he was a traditional sideshow charlatan.

Next on, thanks for all the support and such. I do appreciate it tremendously. My whole point was that so much more goes on that the medical. It honestly reflects on every single portion of life, and we don't concider any of that in these conversations. And every day I get people writing to me for advise on *how to firebreathe*, and it astounds me.

I also want to remind that my medical bills (thankfully mostly covered by insurance) were up in the Hundreds of Thousands of dollars. All for something that took a few seconds, so for those who think that Fire Breathing will pay more for their shows...no show pays that well.

I have been travelling around teaching burlesque dance, tribalized poi and have been giving lectures and having open forum discussions about my accident and I must say that it has warmed me to no end to hear how many people are not Fire Breathing because of someone finally sharing. I agree that I need no sympathy. I knew that I could die when I went into it. I had absolutely no clue what else could go wrong with it, to be sure, and was completely unsuspecting.

If only it weren't such an easy thing to do.

And to answer the question of would alcohol have been any better. No, it wouldn't. When I spoke with the doctor on a follow-up I was told that if I had have inhaled cola the same way, I would have faced several of the same issues, though not to the degree I did. The alveoli are very delicate and sensative and enjoy sending our bodies into tailspins it seems. Alcohol is damaging to tissues, as Mike said, and would have had similar effects. Mike, to look for information on this, you can actually find out by investigating illness and deaths associated with drunkeness I was told.

Anyway, hope to meet some of you on my travels!
Kindest Regards and Happy Breathing to all!
Pele

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Alcohol is damaging to tissues, as Mike said, and would have had similar effects. Mike, to look for information on this, you can actually find out by investigating illness and deaths associated with drunkeness I was told.

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I don't think it is inappropriate or out of line per se, [offering advice on coating gums] unless we are deciding to use this thread to condemn Fire Breathing altogether and make it a taboo subject for HoP.

I mean, sure Fire Breathing is very dangerous, and I myself won't do it (decided that years ago without even trying it once), but is that where this is going?

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Yeah, while reading the above (thanks to everyone who contributed) should be enough to put anyone off the idea of Fire Breathing, you have to assume that people are still going to do it. I mean, EVERYONE knows how bad for you smoking is, but people keep starting. People ARE still going to firebreath, and so its only right that everyone helps them minimise the damage they're going to do to themselves.

If someone went against your advice not to go into a cage of lions, would you turn your back on them, or make sure that they at least took a chair in with them?