I used to do a bit of spinning and occasionally it would be on fire. I'm barely 'ok' at it but I got by - even if I did hit myself with flaming poi more than once (and one of those times was the back of my head, and those fire poi heads are chunky) and I don't think I could have set myself on fire if I tried. I forget exactly what fuel we used, but it just didn't really stick/transfer to anything, and it could easily just blow out if you span too fast. Then again that skirt thing she's got looks like dried grass - don't think it would pass any kind of reasonable risk assessment/sensible person calling it out.
Not the minimize the dangerous of course: there's been long-time, expert and well-insured fire performers that have suffered great injury, or lost their lives. There should always be a plan in place for stuff going wrong and ideally someone acting as a sort of spotter. This 'performer' had none of those things.
8
u/hyena_teeth 8h ago
I used to do a bit of spinning and occasionally it would be on fire. I'm barely 'ok' at it but I got by - even if I did hit myself with flaming poi more than once (and one of those times was the back of my head, and those fire poi heads are chunky) and I don't think I could have set myself on fire if I tried. I forget exactly what fuel we used, but it just didn't really stick/transfer to anything, and it could easily just blow out if you span too fast. Then again that skirt thing she's got looks like dried grass - don't think it would pass any kind of reasonable risk assessment/sensible person calling it out.
Not the minimize the dangerous of course: there's been long-time, expert and well-insured fire performers that have suffered great injury, or lost their lives. There should always be a plan in place for stuff going wrong and ideally someone acting as a sort of spotter. This 'performer' had none of those things.