The Harland Highway - 902 - Harland watches a man DIE! A very sad podcast where harland witnesses a death at BURNING MAN

Episode Date: September 7, 2017

Harland watched a man DIE at the Burning Man Festival. A very sad moment to witness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Harland Highway podcast. Wow. I'm sounding a little bit low-key tonight. Just a spoiler alert. Today's podcast will not be full of humor and merriment. Today's podcast will be a report of my experience. at the Burning Man event, which I have shared with you the last two years that I've been there. This is my third year. And I will start the podcast with sharing all the great, wonderful things that happened. But sadly, and this is a little shocking, at the Burning Man event,

I watched another human being die. And I'm going to talk about it as I go through the podcast here today. And so, unfortunately, not a comedy-driven podcast, but more of a dedication to the young gentleman whose life ended while I just happen to be watching. So a little bit of a different Harland Highway today. Thanks for listening. this is the Harland Highway. Put on your seatbelt. It's about to get bumpy.

Oh, how perfectly awful. I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine. When will they take the bandages off? We don't know who we are. We don't know where we are. You're riding down the Harland Highway. Let us out of here! please let me tell you

you're starting something here that's what you should be frightened of oh fuck yeah bud just leave us alone sit down strap in and shut up what's going on what's the matter I thought maybe if I could kill him I could make him stop

my mother never breastfed me she told me she liked me as a friend who are we this is the Harland Highway it's the Harland Highway It's a cookbook All right, here we go. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is I back from Burning Man.

As you know, I go to the Burning Man Festival or I have gone the last three years. This is my third consecutive year. And I always tell stories, interesting stories of inspiration, of hope, of magic, of art, of whatever Burning Man throws at me. And this year was definitely extreme. Burning Man is a festival out in the desert. In northern Nevada, they do it for a week. At the same time every year,

the last week of August, first week of September. And 70,000 people drive up there. They take campers and tents, and they make a city, 70,000 people out on an old flat, dry lake bed. It's quite spectacular. They form a horseshoe shape. And in the middle of the horseshoe, where the empty spaces, they erect a wooden man, a giant 60, 70-foot figure of a man made out of wood.

And on the second last night of the Burning Man Festival, they burn the wooden man. The man represents, when you burn him, it's supposed to represent you burning away, shedding away, all the issues and problems and baggage you have in your life. And I'll circle back to the burning of the man towards the end of this segment, but because it was at the end, I'll tell you about the rest of it first. So I had a really good time, went up there in an RV. I rented an RV that had its own, you know, facility. a bathroom, a kitchen, a bed, you know, all that stuff. And it's a long drive from Los Angeles. It takes about, man, it takes about 11 or 12 hours to get up there

when you factor in all the stops to go pee and get your gas and grab lunch. And it is a slog to get up there. And then once you get up there, it's quite the ordeal just to get in to the 10 city. because there's a lineup of cars waiting to be you have to be inspected before you go through and set up your camp. So it's a lot of work to get up there and get back, but once you're there, it's worth it. And of course, they put up all kinds of, like, giant art displays out in the desert, and there's lights and music, and it's just a, it's a surreal, beautiful, wonderful experience. It literally feels like you're on another place. planet. And you just walk around all day and you ride your bike around all day and you wait

till night comes and then you do the same thing. Except now there's all these colorful lights and there's art cars that are blowing fire and there's, oh, you got to go just to get it. I can't even explain it properly. But some of the art displays I saw that I really loved, there was one right out in the middle of the desert, and it was like a giant tree, a great big giant tree, and every leaf on this fake tree had been meticulously placed, and the leaves were made of some kind of clear plastic or glass, and every single leaf had a light inside of it. And the lights reacted to the sound of music, so whenever an arc car drove by and was blasting music the lights the leaves would change color and it was just stunning especially at night you can

imagine this thing at night just changing color and it was so kind of beautiful because you know out in the middle of this desert there's there's no water there's no moisture the air is dry and sitting in the middle of this this dry desert is this beautiful green tree even though it's official, it just, it looks real and it just drew people. People were there all the time. People were laying under the tree. People were meditating under the tree. People were making out under the tree. People were doing yoga under the tree. People were daydreaming under the tree. It just really, it really drew people to it. And I must have gone and visited this tree like 10 times. It was sort of magical. So that was one of my favorite art exhibits. And then there was another one.

Back in the early days of animation, there was a device that was constructed called a rhodoscope. And a rhodoscope was kind of like a box or a wheel that you would put images on, and when you spun it around, the images would move in essence creating the very first type of animation. So I don't know if you've ever drawn a picture or seen a book where somebody, drew a little cartoon on each page of the book, and when you flip the pages of the book, it looks like the object's moving, right? In essence, it's kind of animation. You flip the book and the ball bounces or the stick figure runs or whatever, and that's an early form of animation, but these contraptions they built way back in the early days, you'd look through a hole and they'd spin

the contraption and the photographs or the drawings that were in sequence, each one had moved incrementally. And so with the spinning effect, by watching a stationary point, it looked like a horse was running or a man was running or whatever the imagery was, it would magically come to life. And so someone, a burning man, made a giant ferris wheel. I mean, this thing probably stood 25 feet tall, and they mounted on the inner edge of this ferris wheel, they must have put about 40 skeletons, human skeletons that were, I'm sure they were real, or they were maybe artificial, but either way, they looked very real. and the artist had aligned the skeletons

so that it looked like, I don't know if you've ever seen imagery of death rowing people across the river sticks. Death is on the back of a long boat, and according to mythology, death rows the lost souls across the river sticks, and he has a big pole that he pushes along the bottom of the river. And so the skeletons in this kind of ferris wheel-shaped thing

were holding a long staff or pole like you would have seen someone if they were pushing off at the back of a boat through the bayou or across a river. And so these statues were organized and lined up so that they change sides. The first statue was holding the pole, and then gradually it bent down, and it shifted the pole to the other side and pushed, and then it came back up, it bent down. The pole shifted back to the other side, push, push, back and forth, back and forth.

So it basically looked like a guy was going from side to side to side, almost like picture a guy in a canoe changing his paddle from side to side and paddling a canoe, except this was a standing skeleton, they pull and what would happen is people would come up and there were giant ropes and you would pull the art piece and the wheel would start to spin and the skeletons who were attached to the wheel would just start going around in a circle and it was just incredible and if you went at night there was a strobe light just at the center bottom point of said ferris wheel and so it would just flicker long enough for the next skeleton to pass through the light.

And in essence, what it did, it created a rotoscope effect. And so when you stood back and watched, it looked like these skeletons were all one, and it just looked like an animation of one skeleton pushing the Ferris wheel around, moving the pole from side to side, side to side, push, push, push, push. And I got to tell you, man, it just looked unbelievable. And the amount of artwork and craftsmanship and artistry that went into this. I mean, every skeleton had to be placed just perfectly and measured and been in the right position so that it looked like a, you know,

once it started to spin, it looked like continuous flow of one object being animated. Except it was life size. So I don't know if I did a good job painting the picture for you, but it was quite stunning. So those were some of my favorite art pieces. There was many more, but these are two of the ones that I just really got off on, man. And then outside of that, I drove, you know,

you have to have a bike out there. So my buddy had one of these electric bikes. It's just a regular mountain bike, but you can attach a battery-powered little motor to it. So it was motorized, and I was able to, like, burn all over the flat part of the desert there. They call it the playa. It's a dry lake band.

And I was able to buzz all over the place. And one of the things I did this year that I tried to do last year was unsuccessful is you get a lot of these dust devils that whip up. And what those are, so they're like mini tornadoes. The wind comes along and starts circulating around in a little kind of funnel. and in essence creates these little miniature tornadoes of dust and they whip along the dry desert lake bed. And so this year what I did is I got my camera going

and with the electric bike I was able to get my camera phone on my iPhone going and I chased one of these dust tornadoes across the dry lake bed and I kind of drove my bike right through it. And that was really cool because on camera, it looks a lot more imposing and kind of violent than it really is in real life. But nonetheless, it's kind of a mini tornado coming out of the sky and whipping the dust in a circle. So I chased it on my bike, got right into it, and stood in it while it whirled around me

and all this sand and dust. And that was really cool. And then another fun event was when you get to Burning Man, And you usually set up a camp and stay with a group of people. So usually, you know, people are there with their friends. They set up a little, like, circle or horseshoe shape, and they have two to four to five to sometimes 30 or 40 people in one little camp. And so the whole giant horseshoe of 70,000 people is made up of all these little camps that consists of friends.

And so this time I went up with a couple of my buddies, but we didn't have enough for a big camp. so we stayed with some friends of some friends, and it turned out that the people we stayed with was predominantly a group of young Jewish guys who were just fantastic. I mean, these guys were, they just welcomed us into their camp and made us feel like family and like we were home.

And on the second last night of the Burning Man Festival, they had a Jewish event, which was called a, It was like a dinner and a prayer session. It was called a Shabbat is, I believe, the term for it, the Hebrew term, Shabbat or Shabbat, something in that wheelhouse. And basically, people of the Jewish faith, they celebrate their Sabbath. I think it's on a Friday.

And Catholics and Christians do it on a Sunday, but they call it the Shabbat, and they do prayer, and they get. together and they sing and they share food and so they invited me and a couple of my buddies to this event and we did it outside under some tents and there was the singing in Hebrew and there was the food and there was we sat at these log tables with people and and some of the Jewish leaders got up and shared some words which were very inspirational and inclusive and loving and and joyful and so this Shabbats I'd never been to one before was a very beautiful event it was inspiring it was it was joyful it was you know bonding and so I felt very honored

and privileged to be able to attend that with my new Jewish friends and all the people that were there who it wasn't all Jews but predominantly Jewish people but other Scraglers like me, who weren't Jewish, were in the mix as well. So that was something really cool. And just the music and the lights and the sense of excitement and joy. And people were drinking and some people were doing drugs. And there was nudity. People kind of like to walk around completely naked or semi-naked.

There was a lot of very handsome men who were well-built, and there was very gorgeous women who were half-naked or naked who looked beautiful and sexy. I mean, it's just a really free-wheel-in event. Hey, everybody, who wants to have better sex? No? Yes, yes. The answer is yes. You always want to have better sex.

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As I mentioned on the second last night of Burning Man, the ritual is that all 70,000 people gather around the middle of the horseshoe where the giant wooden man is standing. and it's a very primal ritual where they beat drums and there's fire jugglers and everyone sits around the man and as time ticks on after about 45 minutes an hour, they light the man on fire.

And this is symbolic of, you know, like I said, releasing and burning away all the bad baggage and business in your life. And so there's a real sense of, celebration. There's a real sense of euphoria. There's a sense of joy. There's a sense of community because we're all sharing this moment. And it's very tribal. They have people there that are pounding drums and there's people walking around with firelit torches. And it's quite a phenomenal moment. And then all of a sudden, you know, everything goes quiet. And the

Burning Man, I guess they have some guys with ropes and they lift the Burning Man. arms into the air. You see his arms go up and the whole crowd cheers. And then all of a sudden some fireworks go off. Some beautiful fireworks fill the sky. And they emanate from the man. I guess they attach them to him when no one's around and they shoot up and they last for about five or ten minutes. And then poof, the burning man is lit on fire and he starts to blaze. And remember, this structure, this burning man is, you know, between 40 and 60, 70 feet high. And usually he's surrounded by a wooden structure, maybe some kind of housing or some, on certain sides. There's maybe some walls.

In this particular year, they had built kind of a pagoda over his head. So kind of like an Asian-themed pagoda, which was all constructed of wood. And all of a sudden, you know, the wood takes and everything starts to burn. And it's not just a small fire, folks. This is a mega fire. I mean, the base of this fire is probably 50 feet to maybe 100 feet wide across. I mean, it's a wide. Picture a campfire 50 to 100 feet wide.

Okay? It's a huge fire. and they keep us back about 100 feet or more. And then once this thing starts ablazing, the flames go up into the air, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 feet high. I mean, this is a massive wall of fire. It's huge and it's mesmerizing and it's almost seductive and it's alluring. We've all stared into a campfire before.

You know, you just kind of get drawn in and you stare at it and when you see a fire this massive, you're just like, wow, you know, we just sit there and the whole crowd watches it burn until the man falls down. And that usually takes, you know, 45 minutes to an hour almost, maybe half an hour at the least.

And so you've got this phenomenal fire burning and the drums banging and everyone's cheering and everyone's kind of letting go of their bullshit and it's a really great way to kind of culminate the festival and kind of send it off. And it's supposed to leave you rejuvenated and feeling free and empowered and all those things. Whatever you want it to make you feel is kind of the gist of it. And so me and all my new Jewish buddies and my other buddies and the whole group of us, we all went. We got there early.

I'd never gotten to the burn. burning of the man quite so early. And in this instance, because we were there early, we got right to the perimeter. We got right to the perimeter of the circle, the 100-foot circle that kept us back from being too close to the flames. And I've got to say, because of the pagoda that they built on top of it, when that thing started to go, the heat this year was almost overpowering. We were sitting way back, but we were in kind of the front row.

And at one point I actually got nervous. I was like the heat was so strong that I was almost going to turn to everyone and say, hey, we better move back. I think they might have misjudged how hot this is this year. And I think the fact that they built a pagoda over the top of the man added to the heat. And I didn't move back, but there was a beat where I was very nervous. And eventually that severe heat kind of passed, and I can still feel the heat, but it kind of toned down a little. But nonetheless, the flames were still, you know, flying 80, 90 feet into the air.

It was still, the fire still hadn't even peaked yet. And in the middle of us just all sitting there in awe and wonderment and celebration and, you know, experiencing this wonderful, unique and awed thing together. all of a sudden our attention got diverted because a young gentleman had decided to get up out of the crowd and start running around beyond the perimeter of where we were sitting. He had ventured into an area that was restricted and he started running around

and the limited amount of guards they had there started chasing him. And suddenly our attention was drawn to that because for whatever reason, it kind of happened right in front of me and where my group was sitting. So we were looking right at this guy. And so this guy started running back and forth

and the crowd picked up on it and suddenly it was kind of reminiscent of when you ever see when nude people run out onto a football field during a football game or a baseball game or the guy with the shirt, off and all the security guards start chasing him and the crowd's like

and you know he gets away and then they grab him and he gets away and it's just this cat mouse chase right well that's what this guy was doing this guy starts doing the cat man he looked like he was having fun and the crowd was kind of like okay not the smartest place to play this game but the crowd was kind of entertained by it

and it's like ooh oh yeah and then and the guy kept getting away from security. And then he kind of started running towards the fire a little bit. Where there was another layer of security. It was firemen. It was actual firemen and fire gear who were kind of standing around the fire as close as they could be without getting burnt.

And so all of a sudden the first layer of security stopped chasing him, and now the firemen were chasing this guy. and the crowd was still kind of but the problem is the firemen were wearing their full equipment so this meant they were wearing those big black rubber galoshes the rubber boots

they had their fire gear on I think they had little backpacks they had their helmets they had their gloves so it was rather clunky it was like watching an astronaut bouncing around on the moon trying to chase a greyhound because this guy who was running around had no shirt on, he was in his shorts. And so it kind of became this awkward comedy of watching these clunky guys

trying to chase this guy who had a lot of agility. And so we're all watching this kind of semi-confused, a little amused, and maybe a little bit, you know, trepidatiously because, well, fuck, you shouldn't be running around. near a dangerous fire. So we're all watching this. And we see a fireman run up, and he almost grabs the guy, and the guy gets away, and everyone's like, oh! And then the guy turns and runs at the fire

and dives right into the fire. Yeah. this man ran into the inferno he dove in he ran and dove like you would see someone dive off the edge of a swimming pool into the water he dove forward head first right in front of my eyes right in front of everyone's eyes and all of a sudden the ooing and the awing just stopped and everyone's like What the hell just happened? People were in shock. And all of a sudden, the closest fireman who had just been chasing him, tried to get in and grab the guy.

Because when this guy dove in, he didn't dive in standing up. He dove in like forward. And he dove where in his body hit the ground. He didn't jump in standing. And so this brave fireperson ran to try and retrieve him. I don't even know how he got even close to the guy. And just as he was about to bend down and grab him, the pagoda that had been burning,

just at that moment his fate would have it reached its collapsing point. And it caved in. And for his own safety, the fireman had to pull back. from reaching in and pulling this man out of the inferno. And in that moment, this man was in a 100-foot-high, 20-foot-foot-wide blaze that, in my opinion, could have melted metal for 30 to 45 seconds, is my estimate. He laid in there, and I knew that this wasn't going to be good. And then all of a sudden, four or five other firemen bravely rushed towards this guy,

and somehow they got in, I don't know how they, I'm sure they all must have suffered severe burns, these brave people. And they were able to reach in and just grab the guy's feet. You know, the farthest thing from the heart of the fire was his feet because he dove in head first, and they grabbed his pant legs. And they dragged him out. They dragged him out of the charcoal and the flames. He was smoldering.

And they dragged him out along the ground, like a sack of potatoes. And they dragged him as, you know, enough to get him away from the flames, and they let his legs drop, and they stood over him. And it was horrific to see a man being pulled out and the smoldering, and I noticed immediately that none of the firemen dropped to their knees to administer CPR or mouth to mouth or pound on his chest. I noticed they just stood there over him, and that told me all I needed to No, that told me that for most certainly he had expired. And within about another minute, an ambulance rushed in,

and they plopped the guy on a gurney, and into the back he went, and they drove away. And I turned and looked at my friends, and they were all just, In shock. They were staring. They were bewildered. One of my friends bowed, had to lower his head. He couldn't look.

And I looked around at all the other people, and I just saw this look in their eyes of horror, of despair, of shock, disbelief. And I looked into my own heart, and I went, I just saw a man die. I watched a man die. I've never seen a man or a human being die. I saw a man jumping around sprightly and full of life and full of energy and vim and vigor, and it looked like he was having fun and playing with these officials. And like a light switch going off, he was gone. He was there, and then he was gone.

His life was over. And I watched a guy die. And it was tough. it was really tough really tough to watch someone do that and to do it in such a horrific manner to jump into a fire

and I could see my friends I could see that no one knew what to do No, we all stood up and people were dissipating and no one knew what to do. No one could, could, uh, process it. And somehow I, I knew, I knew that this man was either gone or he was on his way out, because I just knew that no one could survive that heat. I, I've, I've got some first aid certificates.

I did a little bit of training in forest fire science when I was a forest ranger. I've been schooled on the intensity of heat and the effects of fire and heat. I've been slightly trained in that area because of my years in forestry I had to be trained to a small degree about the power and the force and the danger of forest fires.

And this was probably more intense than any forest fire because at least in a forest there's space between the trees. This was just a solid wall of flame. And so maybe somehow I knew that this guy was gone or was on his way out. But I wasn't going to give up on the guy. And I could see my friends, the look in their eye, Everyone was just kind of lost, and I scrambled.

And I don't know if it's because I was the oldest guy there. I lived a longer life. I have more experience. I have no idea, but in that moment, I could see that this was going to have a lasting effect on all of us. And it was a very quick moment, a moment of clarity I had, where I thought, this is going to stay with us. This is imagery that you can't, that you can't just. just a race, watching a human being jump into a fire and die. And so in that moment, I stopped everyone.

There was confusion, and no one really knew where to turn, and I just grabbed them all. I said, everybody, everybody, please, everybody, come together in a circle. Please, I'm going to say a prayer for this man. Please join me in a circle of prayer. And I started to pray. Everybody joined. Everybody joined in a circle. All these beautiful people, these people who were horrified, all the people in our group,

and everyone just kind of knew what to do. Everyone got into a circle, and we all put our arms around each other. And I started to pray. I said, God, please, please help this man. Please deliver this man to safety. Please let this man live. Please, please save this poor man. And I went on, but to be honest, I started crying my eyes out.

I could finish my prayer for a few minutes. I was trying to talk, but I was crying out loud at the same time, and so I had to just catch my breath for about 30 seconds, and I continued. And we all said that prayer right in that moment, right there at the scene. And it was heavy, man. It was heavy. It was hard. And at the end of it, I said amen, and we all said amen, and it was Jewish people.

It was Christian people. It was Catholic people. There was a guy in my group that didn't even believe in anything. He didn't believe in God. But he was there. He prayed with us, man. And I think more than that. us needing that. This man that jumped in the fire needed that. And unfortunately, our prayers

weren't enough. But I hope that somehow in that moment, the forces that be helped guide him to a quick, safe passage to wherever we go, if you believe in that, or even if you don't. And it was tough, man. And then we broke apart. We went, all went and got our bikes where we parked our bikes. And I was going to grab the group again because everyone was talking about it. I was going to try and do another prayer, but I didn't want to overdo it. And so everyone went off.

And me and one of my buddies, ironically, my friend who doesn't believe in God or the spirit or anything like that, he said hey you want to ride and I said yeah I just want to ride and that's where this electric bike was just it felt so good because we just drove out into the desert really deep and I just gunned it and I felt the wind on my face and we we oddly enough drove right towards in the dark I don't know how we were guided there because you can't see in the dark out there we somehow accidentally went right towards the ferris wheel of death where the skeleton was mimicking taking dead souls across the river sticks. And I just, as we got close, I veered away, I said, damn, we can't go to this one. We can't go to death. I'm not going to let death take this spirit across.

across the river. Not tonight. Not on my watch. And so we veered away and we went and stared at a colorful tower made out of flowers. And we tried to talk about what happened, but I couldn't. I started, I started to cry again. And I said to say to my friend, I said to my friend, I said, I need a minute. And I put my bike down, and I walked out into the darkness by my darkness by my myself and I just got down on a knee and I, I prayed my guts out. I just looked to the sky and I closed my eyes and I cried and I just prayed and prayed that this poor soul would be saved, that this man would survive and he didn't but I don't I don't hold a grudge I don't

not believe I don't I just know that everyone has their time everyone has their time for whatever reason and I don't know why this man had to go that night I don't know why he had to go when he did. I didn't question that part. I just had to accept that there must be a reason. But it didn't prevent me from praying that he had safe passage, safe journey, that he had closure, that he had whatever peace he needed. I prayed for that too.

And so there it is. That was how my burning man ended on that night. And I do apologize for getting a little emotional here, but it was, wow, quite the thing to witness. And I hope no one else ever has to see something like that. I know there's death and tragedy, and people die all the time in car accidents and many of you listening may have witnessed a death too and it's not easy but what's even more strange to me is is that you know when people die from accidents

in car accidents or people decide to take their own life or people are forced to jump like they did in 9-11, those poor souls had to jump out of the building because it was burning. To see someone in the middle of a celebration, to see someone in an euphoric state to be celebrating with all that energy and then see someone turn and jump into the flame like a moth into a bug light. It's very startling and very confusing and very so many things. But it's part of my story. It's part of what I witnessed.

And for the last three, two years, I've shared with you my events of Burning Man, and most of them were amazing and uplifting and beautiful. And this moment was not. But for whatever reason, perhaps I was meant to see it. Perhaps the other people were meant to see it, I don't know. I don't know how life works in that way. Why or how things impact us, things that we're exposed to. Is it preordained?

Are we supposed to see these things for some reason? These are questions that have been running through my mind. Was there a meaning behind it? Was there a function behind it? Or is it just meaningless and empty and random? These are the questions that I must face and everyone who saw it must face. And there's probably way more questions than that. And I don't know if there's answers.

But it's part of life. It's part of my life. It's part of experience. It's part of me sharing my life with you. And I don't know if you take anything away from this moment if it, It causes you to weep, it causes you to reflect if it, some morbid way, inspires you to, you know, I always say when someone dies, we live harder, we live stronger, we live better for them. And maybe that's part of it.

I don't know. All I know is that it happened. And then a man passed away that night, jumped into a fire. and I will say, rest in peace, poor man, rest in peace. God bless you, and I hope you're in a better place. Okay, so I'm going to leave that part of the experience alone, and I'm sure some of you want more technical details as I did after the event, and I don't want this to come off as sounding cold or insensitive,

but naturally I was quite curious as to who this man was and what the circumstances were surrounding this moment. And so, of course, I saw it plastered all over the news. And so to end this show, to end this segment, and maybe in a way to commemorate this man and put a face on this man, We can do him the honor of saying his name and talking about his real life for a minute. And so if you'll indulge me to close out this very odd show, very odd podcast, I'm sorry there's no comedy here today, folks.

It's a somber moment, obviously. I would like to read just a couple of little newspaper clippings that kind of paint the facts. of the story outside of my eyewitness account. So I'll read these and then we'll shut the door on this chapter, okay? Here we go. And I got to tell you, I wish this was one of my crazy news story segments, but this is real. Here's the headline, gang. Man dead after running into flames and burning man during torching of giant effigy.

The mother of Aaron Joel Mitchell confirmed that her son was the man who died after running into flames at Burning Man on Saturday night. She said her son, who she called Joel, grew up in McAllister, Oklahoma, but was living in Switzerland. He's 41, but they are always your baby, said his mother. He was a loving and nice person, she said. She also has a 35-year-old son. she said Joel liked hiking and outdoors running she said she saw her son on August 1st before heading up to Oregon to go on an eclipse festival she knew he was planning to go to Burning Man with friends and it was his first time to the annual festival she said he is married but does not have any children his wife is from Switzerland he was working in

construction. Quote, he was in great spirits when we saw him, she said. She said she was notified by the hospital early Sunday morning. Quote, we are just in shock. Total shock, she said. We can't believe this happened. Photos of the incident show Mitchell racing towards the fire, dodging multiple safety rangers and then plunging into the flames. On-site firefighters and fire resistant gear, pulled him out, rushed him to one of the on-site medical clinics, and then airlifted him to the University of California. Davis Firefighters Burn Institute, Regional Burn Center, where he died. If I can interject, if you ask me, I don't think he died there. I was, I'm not an expert, but I doubt that he could have even taken a breath of that air that was 5,000 degrees.

I mean, just breathing in one breath would have incinerated his lungs. I continue the story. It remains unclear whether Mitchell was trying to run into the fire or tripped and fell into it while trying to avoid security staff. Well, take it from an eyewitness gang. He was very clear of the security staff. He jumped. He dove into that fire.

I saw it. Okay? We all saw it. Authorities said Mitcha was not drunk and that other toxicology testing was pending. It's safe to assume, I don't know for sure, but a lot of people get juiced up on mushrooms and acid and other types of hallucinogenic drugs and hard drugs and soft drugs. That's all part of that festival, not to say everyone's doing it or everyone's on it,

but it's a safe bet that a lot of people are doing it and are on it, and it might have been the case with this gentleman. I just don't see how anyone runs into a fire without being mentally impaired. The story continues. Crisis counselors were being offered to witnesses and friends following Mitchell's horrifying death. Quote, now is a time for closeness, contact, and community. trauma needs processing well maybe that's part of what this podcast episode is about me processing this horrific moment i'm sure to a degree it is

the burning man organization said in a statement to promote hugs self-care check-ins and sleep well i don't know what that means one of the safety rangers who witnessed the incident and teared up as she told her campmates early Sunday morning as she tried but failed to stop the man. Can you believe what this ranger has to live with? Feeling this man get through your grasp and then jumping in the fire and dying? Law enforcement and Burning Man staff were investigating the incident.

Rangers who work the event are told in advance to look out for three kinds of people likely to rush towards the fire. People trying to get attention like a streaker, people who are on drugs are intoxicated, and don't understand danger, and the suicidal. The annual Burning Man Festival draws 70,000 people to create a temporary city in the Nevada desert,

and the week each year accumulates with the burning of the man structure. So there you go. Burning Man officials didn't immediately respond to questions about what additional safety precautions would be taken in the future. So I think that's a whole other topic of conversation. I think there was some negligence there. There was no security fence. There was no perimeter fence.

when you're mixing a hippie-like festival where hallucinogenics and a lot of drug experimentation is happening and a hundred-foot-high fire, I think it's incumbent on the organizers to probably put some kind of barrier between the seductive flames and the inebriated. I think if I can make a prediction, this might change the face of Burning Man, this might end Burning Man, this might alter it. And just on a very strange side note, a half hour before this guy ran into the fire, I asked one of the buddies I was sitting with beside me, I said, has anyone ever run into those fire, into those flames? And he told me, yes, it happened seven years ago.

And so knowing that it happened seven years ago and to continue the festival without any type of barrier between 70,000 people and a giant fire is probably in the eyes of the law very careless, reckless, and irresponsible. And as much as I hate to attach lawsuits to a festival that is all about leaving, that shit behind

I have a feeling Burning Man is going to have a rude awakening this time and I'm not saying that out of malice or that I want that to happen. I just think the forces that be are going to turn inward against the Burning Man Festival and

change it forever after this. We'll have to wait and see. So there you go, you guys. I don't know if I'll go back to the festival again, not necessarily because of this event, maybe because of this event, but also because after three years, I'm kind of like, I feel like I've done it. I might move on to some other adventures. But that being said, I want to close this podcast with a dedication to Aaron, Joel, Mitchell. I hope you had a wonderful life. I hope that your family and your family and your

wife can live on and have great memories of you. I hope that wherever you are you rest in peace that you are at peace. I'm sorry that this happened, whether you did it on purpose or you were out of your mind on drugs or it was all an accident. However it happened, I'm sorry that it happened. And rest in peace, Aaron, Joel. Mitchell. I'm not really going to do any announcements today, guys. I'm just going to leave it right there. It's a somber, somber show.

And I promise, for my own sake, next podcast will get right back to the fun, the comedy, and the action. But I wanted to keep it real with you guys and share, as I've done the two years before. and as I promised you, my burning man experience. So that's it for today. Thanks for listening, guys.

Please say a prayer, if you can, for Aaron Joel Mitchell. And until next time, stay safe. Chicken. Chow May, baby.