Safety warning: Temple of Poi hereby informs you of your individual responsibility to seek adequate knowledge and safety information to qualify you to spin fire. You are advised to seek appropriate educational knowledge on fire tools and safety techniques, including but not limited to safety precautions; legality of fire permits in your local jurisdiction; appropriate fuel storage, containment, and transport; safety personnel and fire equipment extinguishment; fire tool disposal; and all other aspects of fire safety as related to fire dancing.

Safety Checks
Protecting Your Flesh
Protecting What Lie Beneath
Checking Your Rig
3 Safe Spaces
Fuel Choices
Fire Safety Person
What Can Go Wrong
Transporting Your Gear
Insurance and Permitting

Safety Checks

Being safe means being aware of the choices being made in the fire circle you're working within. I offer you these guidelines; not everyone has them available to them, nor do they necessarily consider these items before burning fire. Because there are as many ways to practice (or not) fire safety as there are fire dancers, protecting your self interest may be experienced as you walking away from a fire circle where people are not practicing safe procedures by your own standard. That might also mean walking away from being the fire safety person for a burn where you are unclear of the dancer's ability to be clear, capable and/or competent. If you choose to light someone who is too tired, out of it, emotional, altered and/or otherwise a danger to themselves and others and something happens, you have to live with your choices as the fire safety person as well as the fire dancer living with their actions too.

It is my firm belief that every fire dancer is safest when they are aware of how best to protect themselves, the space and those with whom they are sharing the space.

Protecting Your Flesh

Ideally, you'll be fire dancing in natural fibers. Cotton, denim and leather work really well. If you're uncertain of the safety of a fabric, hold a lighter to a small and inconspicuous space on the clothing. If the clothing melts, as many synthetics will do, it is not a safe fabric to burn in because you brushing your rig against it may make it burn and melt to your skin. This is more dangerous than the rig hitting naked skin!

In addition, I recommend a bandana or other cotton item to cover your hair with. Even if your hair is short - and especially if it is long - hair is quickest to burn up and seemingly evaporate before your eyes. For people with long hair, braiding your hair first might help keep it under the cap/hat/bandana/safety material you affix to your head. I also advise against having alcohol based products (like hairspray) in your hair when you spin fire, even if you have a cap or some other head cover on. You never know; it may fall off.

Protecting What Lies Beneath

I break down your "self check" into three questions that I call the "3 C's":

Are you Clear? That is, do you feel mentally alert enough to be burning fire? Things that might impact this answer are your mood, how hard a day you had, how much you've been working, a fight you had with someone, an emotional event in your life, and your use of altering substances including alcohol.

Are you Capable? That is, do you feel physically capable of doing the dancing you're attempting to do? Things that impact this answer include how much exercise you have done, how many times you have already burned recently, your use of altering substances, and how tired you are. BEWARE of the adrenaline rush! It can deceive you both on a mental and physical level. My friend Rob stopped my from doing a third burn one night when I was more tired than I realize and hyper pumped because of the adrenaline.

Are you Competent? That is, are you doing moves that you are trained and practiced in? At some point in time, each move will have its "first" time with fire and no matter how much you practice without fire, it isn't necessarily the same feeling with the fire there. I prefer, if I am trying moves that are still wild and not fully practiced, to be extra careful with my hair and ensure my head is covered (even though I usually spin without); hair really is the quickest to burn away.

Check Your Rig

I am guilty of forgetting to do this from time to time and I'm grateful for each time I am reminded by my fire safety person who asks me, "Did you check your rig?" It's really obvious when you think about it, but sometimes we get swept away in the moment and excitement involved in burning so we forget that faulty gear can be problematic - for the performer, the audience, the fire safety person and the environment.

That said, checking your rig includes looking at all the connection points within the rig from top to bottom and bottom to top. That includes checking:

• the nuts on the bottom are secured and holding the wicking on firmly
• the wicking is firmly on the eye bolt and isn't falling apart
• the quick links are closed and tightly secured
• the swivel hooks turn as they are designed to
• the split rings are fully on the chain and the swivel hooks
• there are no faults in the links in the chain
• the handles aren't falling apart
  

3 Safe Spaces

When you're practicing and performing fire dancing, you'll work within three designated spaces. Part of your safety check before you burn includes familiarizing yourself with these spaces.

The dipping/soaking area is the first. That space is where you have your fuel, dipping bucket, and other supplies not in use. This is where you will soak your wicks with fuel. This space should be well away from any open flames.

The spin out area is the second. In this space you will spin your rig to rid it of any excess fuel. This avoids spraying fuel and flames onto the crowd and yourself during a performance. This space should be as industrial as possible. For example, if you are performing at a pool party, it is ideal to move away from the pool and plants on the side of the pool to the street to spin out lest any excess fuel spoil the ecology and environment as a whole.

The performance space is your third area. Be aware of your space! Are there potential hazards in the space? When performing your check, look:

• Below: is the ground level? Are there obstacles on the ground? Are there potholes? Is there debris? Are there flyers? Slippery spots? Oil spills? Is the ground level? Is there dry brush that might light on fire?
• Around: Are there cars coming? Is the audience crowding you? Do you have enough space to safely perform?
• Above: Are there branches that might light up? Are there flags or other hanging items that might catch on fire or melt before your eyes?

In addition to these three spaces, if you have personal effects, you'll want to make sure they are being watched by someone and being kept far away from your fuel to prevent accidental contamination of you things.

Fuel Choices

To this day, I am still incredulous about my first exposure to kerosene. When I first learned how to fire spin, I hired Tim West, a wonderful man from New Zealand who had, at the time, been working with fire for 12 years. As he was educating me about fuels, he poured out some kerosene into the dipping bucket, and held a lighter to the top of the fuel. Much to my surprise, the kerosene did not catch. His demonstration was effective because it took me a year and a half before I was willing to try other fuels!

I recommend kerosene to the beginner because there are so many ways to mis-throw your rig when you're first starting out that you want to make the experience as safe as possible. Other fuels are less safe than kerosene. White gas, for example, would have lit. Fuels like lamp oil (paraffin) are actually fairly safe, though the flame is too blue for my taste when it is spun alone and it doesn't offer you nearly the impact of kerosene.

I have heard of many other fuels including alcohol which I have no personal experience with. things to consider when you're choosing your fuel include understanding the volatility of the substance, the best safety methods for transporting it, and the safety and health hazards associated with it. These days, I spin with a 50/50 or 60/40 white gas to lamp oil mix. It's cleaner, less smelly and quicker burning than kerosene. It also burns brighter and hotter.

Fire Safety Person

In the time I've been spinning fire, I have never lit up without a clear, capable and competent fire safety person supporting my burn. Every time I've been tempted, I ask myself, "Is spinning fire in the moment so important that I should take the risk?" Ideally, all a fire safety person does is light your wicks and smile a lot as they watch you dance.

The reality is, though, things can and do go wrong. If they do, you want your fire safety person to be educated about how to handle things, calm in a crisis, and able to communicate effectively with you and the crowd, if necessary. Your fire safety person should be responsible for the following:

• Checking the performance area with you.
• Operating the fire extinguisher.
• Checking you and themselves to ensure the 3 C's.
• Holding a wet towel or fire retardant material for use in case of emergency.
• Holding the space. This is different in different performance areas. You may be spinning in an urban area, in which case cars may be heading towards you at any point in time, so it's helpful for the fire safety person to stand further out in the street than the performer and call out, "Car!" as one approaches. Usually the safety person can direct the car around the performer and it is a non issue. It can be helpful, as a performer, to face in the direction of the car to assess the situation for yourself. If you are performing, the more challenging problem is the crowd. Mostly, people are just plain silly about fire performances and seem to think that because you're in control of the fire, they can't get hurt. More than once I've been in a situation where a drunk person stumbled through the crowd right across my dance space. In tight performance spaces, it is helpful for the safety person to enlist the help of others in the crowd to help keep the space safe. It really does help!
• Extinguishing out of control fires. If you do have a moment where your rig wraps around you in an unusual way and you can't get it off you (I've never actually seen this happen), your cloths do "catch" on fire or the ground around you catches on fire, your fire safety person would extinguish these flames. I quote the term "catch" because it isn't necessarily obvious that what is burning is usually just excess fuel on TOP of your cloths, not the clothing itself.
• Extinguishing your rig at your request. At any point in time you can choose to end your performance. If you want to extinguish your rig before it burns out, communicate this to your safety person. They can then lay down the fire safety towel for you to place your rig on top of. They will then cover the rig with the other side of the towel and you can step on the towel to smoother the flames.
• Support your performance. It is especially pleasant when your safety person hoots and hollers on your behalf during the performance. More importantly though is letting you know you're not on fire when the poi do brush against you by yelling, "You're okay!" or something like that.
• Communicating danger to the performer. That includes calling out information about oncoming cars, and more important information such as, "pant leg on fire!" if your cloths should catch on fire. It is much less common for your cloths to "catch" fire when using kerosene than when using something like lamp oil. The reason for this is that lamp oil rubs off onto the cloth and takes a few moments to burn out whereas kerosene generally won't even rub off; if it does, it usually burns out before your safety person even has a chance to let you know it was lit.
  

What Can Go Wrong

In the years I've been spinning fire, every dangerous situation I have seen was the result of not following these guidelines. However, some minor situations do arise and this list outlines some of the possibilities.

You're on fire. Mostly this shows up as excess fuel wiping on your cloths as you're dancing which will burn off within a few seconds. I have never actually seen a person "on fire" -- just having flames on their skin. My friend Rob actually lit the front of his leg while doing a one handed performance and calmly patted it out while still performing!

Excess fuel on the rig. This can cause problems other than the aforementioned clothing catching on fire. I have seen performances where excess fuel leapt off the poi and landed on the wooden deck. The deck then "caught" on fire. Much the same as the pant leg example, it was mostly just fuel burning off the surface. However, situations like this call for the safety person to communicate to the performer where the fire is and have them move away from it so they can stamp it out.

Rig breaks. During one of my performances in a really confined space, my rig hit a metal ledge mounted behind me. It broke. I was left with my handle and a few links of chain in my hand. Fortunately, my rig landed on the ground in front of my fire safety person who then extinguished the broken rig. I kept performing with the one rig I had until the next performer came on.

You're over it. At any point in time you can choose to end your performance. If you want to extinguish your rig before it burns out, communicate this to your safety person. They can then lay down the fire safety towel for you to place your rig on top of. They will then cover the rig with the other side of the towel and you can step on the towel to smoother the flames.

Transporting your Gear

I use a little fire "kit" to store and transport my gear. My kit consists of:

• A dipping bucket
• My poi
• Socks to cover my poi (so I can spin them without getting carbon on me)
• Plastic bags to tie over my poi (to avoid fuel contamination)
• A "safety rag" (the one you get wet for burning)
• A dry rag (to wipe excess carbon off the rig after a burn)
• Fuel in a travel safe container (note: if you are transporting it to the playa, leave space for the fuel to expand in its container)
• A bucket to carry it all in
• A lighter
• A funnel (to replace unused fuel from the dipping bucket into the fuel container)
• Lava rags and/or other grease cleaner for my hands
• Paper towels
  

Insurance and Permitting

If you are interested in doing a performance in San Francisco, the permitting information can be found here. You will need to get insurance to get a permit. Insurance is a little under $200 a year from Clowns of the US.