Col 2005... and safety!

so with all of the recent talks about the hazards and safety involved with all of our fire arts that we share here i have a simple question!.

Who else thinks that it would be a good idea to have a saftey video at the end of the next col video????

dont have enough time to post right now but thought thta i would ask away whilst i have the time to write... just this little.

why not at the beginning?

or at the beginning and at the end?

Excellent idea PK; that would be a really useful extra for those who are pretty new to fire.

A problem is going to be that it's extra work for Malcolm/HOP.

Perhaps interested people in the HOP community could make safety vids and submit them- best one gets on the DVD?

Why not simply a message displayed on the screen?

Whats that? 1 minute to thk kwhat to write, and then a further minute to type it up?

I would do it if it is too much trouble...

lol what message would u use to sum up fire safety?

"dont play with fire!"

UCOF- a message is a decent idea, certainly better than nothing. A video may have the advantage of being more likely to get the message across

These days everything seems to have a token disclaimer, generally to protect the maker from being sued rather than any sincere concern for the safety of others- a vid would show that at least a segment of the fire community does care about getting the safety message across.

And, on HOP, people do care; we're well past the days when talk of safety was swamped by a$$hole jokers bleating about 'political correctness gone mad' and generally trying to undermine the sincere efforts of those who do take this stuff seriously.

HOP as a community comes across as having a sensible stance on safety issues e.g. the automatic Fire Breathing link, the articles on procedures and the fact that many of the community recently devoted a chunk of their signature space to a safety link rather than using it to wind up other members.

incidently, UCOF that last comment wasn't directed at you, it was directed at Ben; and, on reflection, it was a little harsh so I apologise.

But I'm going to leave it up just so people can see how stuff like-

Written by: ben-ja-men

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lol what message would u use to sum up fire safety?

"dont play with fire!"

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can really p*ss off people who are normally quite calm and placid.

what i was origionally thinking was to have a little 5 minuite video of maybe some one showing how you check and repair equipment, shake off proceedures, reusing fuel [menik style], introduction if the various safety equipment eg: fire blankets, buckets and extinguishers, tips on what would be necessary for a first aid kit on hand, other safety people involved ie: people watching each other!.

not like your generalised comment ben! you know where im coming from with this.

I think that it will just be a good idea and to show what a safe community we are and what we DO expect to see. I remember in col4 there was the video of the two girls that won!, did you see that state of those split rings.. might have been col i cant remember off the top of my head now!, but there was a close up and i was appalled that it was even shown as they could have broken during the filming.

I know that people in USA seemed to give a lot more thought to safety than people in uk. The performances i saw all had qualified people with fire blankets and extiguishers. Lots of fire proofing on the stage.

I rarely see this level of saftey at gigs in britain. I once saw a fire show in a club where they didn't even spin the excess fuel off before lighting. By the end of the show the wwhole stage was covered in parafin and it was increadibly slippy. They even had guy breathing fire so high it engulfed the lighting rig!!!

So i think a little saftey vid would be a very good idea.

m

I was planning to put the safey video on its own DVD. It is a really big project. That way it can acompany other DVDs

A quick thought came over my mind, but I am weary to bring it up as I know it is very dangerous...

maybe for some of the things like "what to do if you catch fire/handcuff etc...." you could have a short video of it happening in a controlled enviroment, IE, someone deliberaty goes into a wrap and doesn't spring it back and the safety puts the wicks out etc...
It's like how fire fighters light small fires to train on...of course it is all in a controlled enviroment and they minamize risks...

/me awaits the most probably negative responses

imangel: i'm not sure about that idea. on one hand, it's highly dangerous. on the other hand, it's a good way to show someone that if they're tangled and on fire, there's not alot they can do but calm down and call a safety. i'm very good at untangling myself, but when my legwrap went bad last month, all i could do was hop on one foot and wait for a fire blanket. if i had panicked, i would have gone away with alot worse than hairless (but silky smooth) legs.

i'm all for this safety dvd, i'll support it in any way i can

The most commn reason i've found for wraps getting caught on clothes is badly designed components that have little wire loops in them ~ perfect for catching a passing sleeve or trouser leg. Fix the design to maximise safety.

And ben you forgot one improtant safety rule ~ don't spin fire if you're a numbnuts

Immortal, how about a demonstration WITHOUT fire? Show what the spinner should do, and what the safety should do, but without fire so that it's a bit safer??

thor...I really hope that someone who is doing safety is paying attention, and doesn't need to be called over.

Actually, Malcolm and I had thought of this awhile ago and we had posted it in a couple of threads a few weeks ago.

I am being sponsored to Home of Poi headquarters in New Zealand in the end of April beginning of May where I will be working with Malcolm to make a seperate fire safety dvd that will be given out, free of charge, as well as, I *believe*, included with the COL's and also available for download off this site. (correct me if I am wrong Malcolm)

Just to let you know it is something that has already been planned out and is being done.

However, there are fine lines when it comes to dealing with legal issues and medical issues on video, because each case is different. Legal we will not be covering because it comes with too much liability and differentiation between countries and locals. Obviously the whole insurance and such will be mentioned.

Medical. Again for the sake of liability we will only be covering the basics.

The rest, well, trust me, it will not be 5 minutes. I had been asked years ago to write a manual on fire safety. Everything that was planned in that will most likely be on the video.

And I think I am also going to subject myself to being interviewed about my accident and I will be showing the world my scar from it, which is a pretty big thing for me.

So, as far as I am concerned that is the plan. Please add or correct anything Malcolm.

its such a worthwhile project, maybe something to consider possibly having it so that people who run regular meets are able to recieve multiple copies to lend out/distribute to new comers

just out of interest whats the estimated run time for it? if its less than 60 mins it wont cost any more to fill the rest of the dvd up to 60 mins perhaps it could contain some previews from all the other videos on the site? or maybe just a set of some nice spinning showing a whole burn done safely

Maybe the DVD could be a good investment for fire safety officers, group organisers etc. as well.

That sounds proper cool.

Great idea pele,

You should see if you can compress it on to 1 cd instead of 1 dvd. Lose a fraction on pixel size but the quality will still be fine.

That way it would be super easy to copy and distribute by everyone who gets a copy.

m

Yes I was thinking about the VCD being more easier for people to copy and not everyone has a DVD player.
Pele what you have said is correct.

On the purposely doing handcuff fire wraps and showing how to properly get out of them, Im up for it.

I have asbestos skin anyway (*grabs his wicks*), but I also have skin tight kevlar welding gloves and gauntlets that go all way up t'arm t'elbow.



So it wouldnt hurt me
Im invincible,
You're a looney,
etc

i look forward to seeing the outcome of this project.

thanks malcolm and thank you pele for giving up your time to support the community in this video.

hey um, just a silly question...

since this is going to be available for free download and the like, would it be kosher to DL it, burn off say 100 or so copies and hand them out before/during/after a burn, to people that show interest in getting involved? I would of course make sure its printed on the cd that its from HoP and give out the HoP addy with them. But ya know, people see you spin and are like wow that's kewl I'm gonna go do it, and then have a bad accident and all...

so uh yeah, is a status update on this safety vid, I'm all anxious to see it....

oh yeah, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY DOING THIS!!!


*pounce pounce lick n kiss*

maybe just a disclaimer

i think it's awesome that you guys are doing this, and it's particularly noteworthy that you're planning on giving it away for free, as i'm sure there will be a decent amount of cost going into for production. as such, i'd like to donate some money for the project because i don't think it should be all out of your pocket, malcolm. keep an eye out for a PM.

Thanks for the offer, however we have already budgeted for this project. Thanks to a lot of local support, and Pele giving up her valuable time.

Malcolm loves all.. "all hail malcolm"


i cant wait to see this project.

nice vid, but malcolm, i never knew how dangerous you are!

There was no mention I saw of what a towel should be made of. Personally i don't use that method for putting poi out (heh, my first HoP meet up was nothing like that vid, i was one of the few people semi sobar about a gazillion miles away from anywhere), but lots of towels here are made from synthetics. I wouldn't wanna put some flaming poi onto a polyester towel.

Flid,

Cheers. I will update the video to make sure it states "cotton towel".
Dangerous you should see me with my Beamers