You can’t drop what you’re wearing – non-negotiables for fire skirts, crowns, costuming, and any wearable fire apparatus
When it goes wrong on stage: viral videos of fire performers
A few videos have been circulating lately, and they’ve been sitting heavily with me.
I’m not going to share them here – I don’t want to add to the spread of footage where someone is having a traumatic experience. But I do want to talk about what they show, because there’s a pattern in them worth discussing.
In one, a performer’s large fire skirt gets tangled during a show on a beach. She panics, and sprints into the sea to put it out. In another – also a fire skirt – the performer runs to side stage, and several people crowd around her, unsure what to do. One of them ends up fanning at the flames with what looks like a piece of cardboard, before somebody appears with a (small) safety towel. There’s an older one too: a performer in a straw skirt, almost certainly plastic, who catches alight and panics, until an audience member intervenes and pushes her into a pool.
Here’s what strikes me about all three: a lack of experience, education and preparation. Fire behaved exactly the way fire behaves – the ignition was not the failure. There was no way out of the costume, no one briefed and equipped to respond, no plan for the 40 seconds that followed. Panic instead of preparation.
These videos have prompted some judgment, and I understand the impulse – it’s shocking to watch. But as I said in my last post: educate, don’t hate. Fire arts is a niche subculture, and much of what we know about fire safe practice is passed through community and industry knowledge. Not everyone has had access to that.
Each of these could have ended far worse than it did, and the last thing any of us wants is to see someone seriously hurt. So rather than pointing blame, let’s talk about what good practice looks like – and what every one of us can put in place.
Why wearable fire raises the stakes
Everything below applies to any fire performance, and to spinning for fun in a park on a Tuesday. But I’ve written it with wearable fire specifically in mind – fire skirts, fire crowns, fire wings, hats, shoes, you name it.
The difference comes down to one thing. With a set of fire fans, your worst-case plan is simple: let go. With something unusual like a fire skirt, letting go isn’t an option. You’re attached to it, you can’t see all of it, and getting out of it becomes a physical task that takes time you might not have. You can’t drop what you’re wearing.
The more unusual the apparatus, and the bigger the fire, the more prepared you need to be.
I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it: no matter your experience, no matter your confidence, nobody plans for an accident. That’s what makes it an accident. Things go wrong. And when the severity of a risk is high – as it always is with fire – we plan for the worst even when the likelihood is low.
1. Quick release
A quick release is non-negotiable for any wearable fire apparatus – a means of separating yourself from the fire quickly and easily. This is clearly missing for each performer in the viral videos, resulting in panic when they are unable to isolate themselves from the fire.
If your costume is tight-fitting and you have to shimmy out of it, or it’s held on with laces or a row of straps or knots you tied yourself, ask the honest question. How are you getting out of that if something goes wrong? Will it be manageable under stress, possibly in the dark? Will you be able to do it in seconds?
On my Phoenix Rising Fire Skirt™ I use an aeroplane seat belt buckle – one motion and I’m separated from the fire (and now I think about my act every single time I take a flight!). My FireLily Dragon Wings™ simply slip off the arms.
Whatever you create, you must be able to get out of it fast. This may also take practice!
2. Fire safe materials
I went deep on this in my last post Dressing for the Flames, so head there if you want the full breakdown. The short version: natural fibres burn to ash, while synthetics melt.
And they can MELT TO YOUR SKIN. Yes, that deserves all caps! If something goes wrong, the injuries you sustain from a synthetic costume or apparatus are dramatically more severe – you’re now dealing with burns that have plastic fused into them.
Natural fibres are also less likely to ignite in the first place. When in doubt, burn test your materials before you build with them.
3. A fire safety team
A person dedicated to fire safety is standard practice for any fire spinning, often called our fire safety assistant or technician. However, the bigger the fire, and the more unusual the apparatus, the more prepared your fire safety team needs to be (which may mean several safety assistants on hand!).
Your fire safety team needs to be experienced, confident handling fire, and briefed on the specific apparatus they’re covering. They should know how your quick release works, what the fire will do, what you will do, and what their role is during the show and in case of emergency.
When I perform with my Phoenix Rising Fire Skirt™, there’s a significant portion of the flame I physically cannot see – somebody else has to be watching me, the apparatus, and the surroundings. My fire safety team knows exactly what will happen during the performance, how my quick release works, and the specific technique for extinguishing my fire skirt once I finish my act.
Your fire safety team also need the right equipment on hand: damp towels (a duvetyne may work, but a damp towel is always going to be most effective), and a fire extinguisher. When my team at FireLily Dance Entertainment runs large scale fire shows, we often have eight or more damp towels, and multiple fire extinguishers in place!
4. Equipment checks
Screws come loose. Kevlar frays and perishes. Things simply wear out.
Checks and maintenance aren’t admin, they’re part of your safety responsibility – and that includes checking your safety equipment, not just your props. Do you have everything you need before lighting up? Is your Fire Safety Team in position and ready?
Perform your equipment checks every show, every time.
5. Training
And underneath all of this: training is essential!
You need to have practised with your apparatus – worn it with your planned costume, moved in it, learned how it behaves – long before you put fire to it. Then, when you do light up, you drill it again with fire. It should become second nature.
Your safety team should be there for your fire run-throughs. Everyone involved should know what’s going to happen, what the risks are, and exactly what steps to take if something goes wrong. Deep knowledge of your apparatus, and a shared plan, are what was missing from every one of those videos.
Safety is sexy!
The safer you are, the wilder you can be! Every bit of rigour we build in is what makes the ambitious, ridiculous, beautiful stuff possible – the big apparatus, the huge flame effects, the acts that push the boundaries of our art.
So share this post with your fire friends. Promote safety with your peers, your colleagues, your community. Ask the awkward question about someone’s costume. Offer to safety for a friend who’s working on something new. Share what you know, generously and without judgment.
Be kind, keep each other safe, and keep the creativity flowing in our wonderful world of fire arts.
See you in the flames!
Jessy x
Author: Jessica Foster (Jessy Spin)
Feature photo taken by Solitude & Co at Adelaide Fringe INFERNO.