Doing a burn stunt... in a kung fu uniform

Today was my first experience learning to do a burn. In actually however, the process started about a week ago when I went to a thift store with a bunch of the other stunt players I'm training with to find cheap clothes that we could light ourselves on fire in. As a burn stunt requires all 100% cotton clothes (most synthetics will 'melt' into molten plastic instead of burning to ash), and multiple layers of protection, the very first part of stunt was finding the right clothes to burn in. As luck would have it, the ONLY tops I could find that was 100% cotton and in my size was the top of a kung fu uniform, and an exact replica of Freddy Kruger's sweater. What a combo! I already knew it was going to be a good day.

On the day of our burn we were given a lecture on the natural tendencies of fire, and how to protect yourself from it (which fit nicely with some of the wilderness survival related fire work I had done in Japan), and the instructors walked us through the preparations we would need to take in order to do our burns, and it was an incredible learning experience. I could see first hand why 1) burn stunts are rare in films and 2) why they are always so short.

1) They take an incredible amount of manpower to do as just one person safely doing a 20 sec. burn takes a team of about 20 people. (3 on fire extinguishers to put out the main fire, one with a hose to put out spot fires that re-ignite inside the clothes, 1 on blankets, 3 to prep the clothes, etc).

Second of all, you are always working against the clock. Before the stunt, the player needs to put on long-johns of flame resistant material (that have been soaking in freezing cold flame resistant gel) and the longer you wait after you suit them up, the warmer the undersuit will become, (and thus less affective). Furthermore, given the fact that it is a wet, ice-cold bodysuit against your skin) waiting a long time in the suit before the stunt also puts you at risk for hypothermia.

2) The reason they are so short is because you can't actually breath while you are doing it. As they chemicals burning are a bit toxic, there is fire around your mouth and nose, and smoke is everywhere, you can't risk breathing in. And even after you drop to the ground (the sign that you want them to put you out) they are spraying you with ice-cold CO2 from fire extinguishers (which you also can't breath in) so you need to hold enough air to get through that as well. Finally they also fill your ears with the flame resistant gel, so you can't actually hear such as well. (and for a frontal burn, you also have to do it blind.

As for my burn it went pretty well. The only downside of doing the burn in the kung fu uniform was that the small metal tabs in the collar meant that I had to cut it completely off before the burn, (hot metal on skin-no thanks) and that meant no protection for my neck. It also meant the back of my head would act as a 'heat shelf' and would get extremely hot, extremely fast if I didn't keep it down all the time. They told me that this would happen and that I should get flame 'licks' on the back of my head, and it happened more or less exactlly as they said it would. Also as I have a shaved head, I didn't have any hair to hold the flame resistant gel, (which is basically water in a molecular gel form), so that layer they put over my skin would be all that there was to protect me. After catching 2 of those flame licks on the back of my head, I was done. I dropped down so they could it me out. Interestingly enough though, after standing up, taking a shower, and walking away from it, it was an incredible feeling...kind of like completing a successful skydive. Really looking forward to the next time I can get more experience in this particular area of stunt work.