Burning Man 2017 – Man dies after thousands watch him run through inferno of massive effigy being burnt at climax of festival in Nevada desert
A MAN has died after thousands watched him run through an inferno of a massive effigy being burnt at climax of Burning Man festival.
Fire rescue officers chased Aaron Mitchell, 41, as they tried to stop him from entering the inferno at Burning Man festival yesterday but were unable to do so.
Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said the man ran through a human-chain of security officers at around 10.30pm on Saturday.
The sheriff said the man was rescued by firefighters and later died at the UC Davis hospital burn centre in California.
The arts and music festival features the burning of a giant wooden effigy each year, with the humanoid structure reaching approximately 50 feet into the air.
Some 70,000 people from all over the world are thought to attend the gathering, and the man is believed to have dodged a number of security personnel to reach the flames.
The harrowing incident in the Black Rock Desert is not the first time someone has done something of this nature.
In 2014 Christoper Wallace ran into an inferno at the Element 11 festival in Utah- a spin-off of the Burning Man event.
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Someone claiming to be an eyewitness to that event wrote about what they saw on the internet forum site Reddit.
The poster, using the name Faedroid, said a security perimeter was set up roughly 60 feet away from the structure.
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The effigy burned for around 10 minutes before Wallace headed towards the structure while being chased by security guards.
Following the death, authorities established that the 30-year-old had intended to take his own life and had told other festival-goers of his plans.
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