YOU'RE ORGANISING A FIREWALK, BRILLIANT!

It should be straightforward, thousands have done them…….

If your charity wants to have a fundraising firewalk your supporters should have an amazing experience. As the charity fundraiser you’ve worked hard organising, promoting and signing up supporters. Your supporters have worked hard raising much needed funds for the cause that is close to their hearts they deserve to have an amazing and safe experience.

You, as the organiser, are responsible for ensuring that you have contracted the safest and highest quality firewalking provider available. I know that cost is a consideration, but you should never do what some charities do, ask for three bids to provide the event or multiple events then go with the lowest bid. Safety should be the priority with supporter experience next.

Event managers and corporations also have the same responsibility when it comes to motivational and team building events.

My aim is for you to have a happy face and your supporters to have happy faces, healthy mucky feet and the feel-good factor attached to your charity. With this feeling they’ll want to include their family and friends in future events with you. Sadly, others don’t appear to share our aim.

When someone is looking for a specific date for their firewalk, but Blaze are fully booked they often ask who we would recommend. There is no-one that I would recommend now as they don’t have our high standard of safety or share our ethos.

Your supporters are the most important people at a firewalk. The firewalking instructor should leave their ego in their van before each event. They can pick it up again when they go home. There are too many firewalking instructors who think that it is all about them and how amazing they think they are. Which can be the basis for the pre-firewalk training.

They say the words, they build the firewalk, the action of taking that first step (quickly followed by many others) onto the firewalk is your supporters’ achievement. No-one should claim responsibility for that achievement.

Most importantly, your supporters deserve to have healthy feet afterwards, the venue should be left clean and damage free. Fundraising should never be painful or destructive.

Here are some things you should be aware of when choosing your firewalk provider:

NOT ALL FIREWALKS ARE THE SAME

Who are the firewalk providers?

Some charities, fundraisers and event organisers never mention the firewalk provider’s name or they write ‘professional firewalking company’. Your supporters deserve to know who they are entrusting the soles of their feet with. You deserve to know who the firewalking company are, how long they have been firewalking, how many firewalking events they have carried out. When people talk about doing a firewalk they always mention why they did the firewalk, who the charity was but rarely mention the name of the firewalk provider.

What is a certified firewalking instructor? This is someone who has paid to take part in a firewalking instructor’s course that no-one ever fails. There’s no assessment of ability, no assessment of knowledge or skills, and no assessment of suitability. These courses can be 3, 4 or 5 days long. It usually comprises of a few firewalks, 1 glasswalk, 1 board break, 1 rebar bend and a lot of exercises that fill time but don’t have any relevance to firewalking (trust falls, washing each other’s feet). After the course they are out there in the world teaching people to do what they have just learned.

There is NO governing body regulating firewalks anywhere in the world.

There are no legitimate qualifications for firewalking instructors or differing levels of mastery. It is yet another money-making scheme.

If they claim to have an award for being the best firewalking provider, ask who awarding body was (I’ll save you some time, I asked, they awarded it to themselves!) Similarly, if they make claims of being the leading firewalk provider of any country, ask for proof. There are some enormous egos and outlandish claims out there.

If there is the word ‘research’ in their name, ask them what research they have carried out and what papers they have published. (hint: none)

Look at their social media pages, if they are posting pictures of themselves jumping over fires or standing amongst pillars of fires…..why on earth would they do something so stupid and irresponsible? If they don’t care enough about their own health and safety how much care are they placing on their events? What is their priority, adrenaline rush, ego or safety?

Are walkers expected to sign a disclaimer or waiver before taking part? Blaze stopped using them years ago. Under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, now Consumer Rights Act 2015, you cannot sign away your health and wellbeing in the United Kingdom.

Many people are not aware of the above and believe that they can do whatever they want without consequences. There is a video on a Facebook page with an American instructor explaining when to ignore rules and regulations and ‘go with spirit’ In case they take down that video, I have a copy.

Blaze have at least two cameras filming everything within the firewalking area for our protection, the walkers’ protection and the charity’s.

Where can I view unedited firewalks that they have done? Look at videos and photographs that walkers and their supporters have uploaded to social media rather than shiny promotional videos. With clever editing a mediocre firewalk can look amazing. I prefer to show Blaze firewalks without editing. you can see exactly what our firewalks are like.

Are there any banners and flags? If so, who are they promoting? At Blaze the only banners you will see are banners belonging to the charity. We never have banners with our name on them as we feel this is your event, raising awareness and funds for your organisation. Some firewalk providers have banners and flags with their name and brand on them hitching a ride on your coat tail, getting free publicity when they are already getting paid to provide the firewalk. If a firewalk provider wants to advertise themselves at your event they should either do the firewalk free or pay you for advertising at your event in the same way that corporate sponsors donate funds in return for having their logo and name displayed at events and venues.

Look at the people about to firewalk. Do they look happy to be there, do they look nervous, scared? Is the firewalking instructor interacting with the walkers offering them support?

What is the firewalking instructor doing? Where are they standing? Are they close to the walkers when they are firewalking, or are they standing a bit of a distance from them? Are they speaking, saying anything relevant to what is going on, sharing information or is it just noise pollution as they have a microphone in their hand or wearing a headset and feel they have to say something, anything. I never wear a microphone, what I’m saying is for the walkers’ ears only unless I’m speaking to the spectators.

Have they got a thermometer pointing to the pile of embers at the side of the firewalk? Which makes no sense as that isn’t where people are going to firewalk…but hey, they think it adds to the drama.

People don’t need a digital reading of how hot the embers are, they will feel the heat radiating from them. Another reason for this is to waste time. To allow the embers on the fire lane to cool down before the instructor firewalks. They don’t want to burn their feet again.

During the firewalk where are the firewalking providers standing?

Is the instructor standing with the people about to firewalk or are they standing to the side chatting or wandering about?

Are they even watching the firewalk?

Are the fire team beside the fire lane?

Blaze have a team member walking beside each person as they are firewalking. We all need help and support at some points in our lives and that is what we are there for.

What should never happen is the instructor or a team member standing beside the fire lane leaning on a spade like a gardener having a rest after digging up potatoes or being busy taking photos. They should not be holding coffee cups or water bottles. The fire team and the instructor should be close to the fire lane and have both hands empty…just in case

How many separate firewalking events have they carried out? This could be their first firewalk with the public. I write ‘separate firewalking events’ in this way as many firewalk instructors count the number of times they firewalk on one lane as a firewalk and will claim that they’ve firewalked 100 times when the reality is that they’ve done 3 firewalks during their 4-day firewalking instructor’s course (which no-one ever fails. They pay their money and 4 days later they have a certificate in their hands proclaiming that they are a firewalking instructor) but they’ve walked over these three firewalks 100 times. See the difference? At Blaze our instructors undertake a THREE YEAR training programme with everyone starting on the fire team. They will only go onto the next part of their training (if invited) after they have tended 200 firewalks at different locations, at different times of the year.

People are drawn to these courses with the promise of making money through firewalking or believing that they will be the next Tony Robbins. There are multiple organisations who claim to have trained Tony Robbins but there was one person who has now retired from firewalking for the third time. If it was the course that was responsible for Robbins’ success, then every single person teaching that course and taking part in it should be able to replicate it.

A teacher should never take credit for their pupil’s success.

Is any member of the fire team wearing a firefighter’s uniform? They are giving the false impression that their fire team member is a trained firefighter. From a psychological aspect as soon as someone sees a firefighter they immediately start thinking of emergency situations that firefighters are needed and start thinking of danger.

When is the firewalk taking place? Spring, summer, winter or autumn. The time of year, temperatures, air pressure and humidity all effect how a fire burns and how hot the embers are on the fire lane. Firewalks on hot summer’s day will increase the likelihood of injuries. Expecting your fire team to tend a fire during extreme hot weather is potentially putting the fire team’s health at risk from heat exhaustion.

What time of the day is the firewalk taking place? Daytime firewalks have a higher incidence of burns injuries than night time firewalks. In daylight the embers look black/grey, you cannot see the embers glow orange. It can be challenging to see if the embers have been evenly raked without hotspots. Hotspots are dense areas of embers that will cause burns if stood on. Walkers may think that it doesn’t look very hot and take their time walking which increases the contact time with embers increasing the risk of burns. A daytime firewalk with a Manchester based firewalk provider in 2013 resulted in many people getting burnt. 4 people required hospital treatment with one of them needed skin grafts. Even though people were in pain the firewalk instructor still tried to pitch a glasswalk afterwards! Of course, there are still firewalk providers that have hotspots visible in evening firewalks and still don’t do anything to disperse that hotspot.

If you view people patting the firewalk after each walker, this is daft, and they are increasing the risk of burns by compacting the embers.

Can they give you a definite time that the firewalk will take place? The inexperienced firewalk provider will say that the firewalk will take place when the embers are ready as they haven’t worked out how long it takes for the wood to burn. They build the exact same size of bonfire, every single time.

What does the pre firewalk training entail? Do they explain how firewalking is possible? There are many theories but only a small number have been proven. Ash doesn’t act as an insulator. There isn’t enough ash on firewalks to be a protective barrier. Blaze rake over embers after 4 or 5 people have firewalked to replenish the embers. This movement dislodges ash that has formed.

Blaze have a pragmatic, practical approach to firewalking, there’s no magic, mysticism, hypnotism or woo woo. No walking with intention, no raising energy to match the energy of the fire nonsense.

Do they explain the correct pace to firewalk at? Demonstrate this pace, practise it before going outside to firewalk? Do they explain that there is a correct pace to walk at? Walking too slowly will increase contact time with embers

Are they aware that there is a correct pace to walk at or do they believe that they will be safe walking at any pace as they have set their intentions(!)

What barriers are in place? Are there any barriers at all? There should be barriers from the ground to waist height A single piece of tape is not adequate, it can be easily broken. Children and dogs can get underneath. I know that there is the theory that putting rope on the ground and people will stay behind it, but again children and animals don’t adhere to that.

To have a firewalk without barriers is completely irresponsible.

Spectators should be at least 5 metres from any fire source as wood is excellent at radiating heat. The fire should also be at the same distance from any building or structure to prevent thermal shock damage.

Plants should be protected from the heat radiating from the fire.

What is the length of the firewalk? Blaze have 20’ firewalks. I’ve seen some firewalks where they have said that the firewalk is going to be 15’ but on the night it is barely 8’, 4-5 steps. I recently viewed pictures where it was a foot long. One step!

How is the fire lit? At Blaze we use fire breathing sticks. Easy to use, easy to put out by dipping in the many buckets of water we have at the side of the fire area.  Butane torches should never be used to light a fire for a firewalk. They should never be exposed to naked flames or to temperatures above 50’C. I’ve seen too many photographs posted onto firewalk providers’ own social media pages, proud to show off their fires and there sitting a few feet from the flames is a butane torch. They appear to be completely unaware of the potential explosion risk.

How are the empty butane cannisters disposed?

Who firewalks first to test that the fire lane is safe for participants to walk? It astonishes me that there are firewalks that no-one tests before allowing people to firewalk. The firewalking instructor should be the person to walk first. I know of a few firewalk instructors who never firewalk.

At every Blaze firewalk that I’m part of, I always walk first. Three reasons are:

1.      I would never expect anyone to do something that I’m not prepared to do myself.

2.   I need to make sure that the firewalk is safe

3.      I bloody love it

How many fires are there?

Some people use a feeder fire method. That means that they build a massive fire which burns for hours then they transfer the embers to another area for the firewalk. There can be 3 or 4 separate bonfires burning for hours. They then transfer the embers using a shovel then walk with this shovel to the firewalking area.

Factors when using this method that increase the risks:

If the fire is built on the area that the firewalk is taking place, how high is it built? How long does the fire burn? At Blaze, the Firewalking Experts we can have a firewalk ready to walk on 30 minutes after it is lit. There are three very good reasons how this is possible but I’m not going to write it here as anyone with knowledge, skills and experience should know how.

More fires burning increases the incidence of fire spread. There should be one person for every area of fire and two people tending to the fire lane. When people are firewalking there should be people monitoring the feeder fire areas. These feeder fires are often left unattended.

The length of time the fire burns can be 1, 2 or 3 hours. This length of time increases the risk of fire spread. If a fire burns for more than 40 minutes, most of the wood becomes ash which is a terrible waste of a precious resource.

Transferring embers by shovel; embers can be dropped, wind can blow the embers. The fire team using this method rarely seem to be wearing personal protective equipment.

I’ve seen people spraying turf that has been laid out for the firewalk, with water before the embers are placed (via shovel). I don’t understand the rationale behind this, do they believe that it will cause the bottom layer of embers to dampen/cool down? The reality is that the turf absorbs the water. Which adds to the risk of slipping.

They also spray water onto the end of the fire lane, then tell people to wipe their feet there once they’ve firewalked. Water on turf + wiping feet = slippery mud. A needlessly added slipping hazard that in introduced by the firewalking provider.

Hoses spraying walkers’ feet once they’ve come off the firewalk is also adding to both slipping and tripping hazards especially if they are spraying water on a grassy area. People can and do slip. I have copies of videos where walkers have slipped on the grass. The tripping hazard is the hose. People rarely pay attention to where the length of hose is behind their back

If the fire is built on the area that the firewalk is taking place, how high is it built? How securely is it, will it topple over when the centre has burnt through?

How deep are the embers on the firewalk? If they are too deep they will burn the sides of feet. A perfect example of how not to build a firewalk is on Bill Bye Saves the World, season 1, episode 11. They have built the firewalk from the visual aspect instead of safe, it looks amazing. Both presenters are in pain doing that firewalk. They did not have an enjoyable firewalk. The embers are too deep. The explanation on how firewalking is possible is incorrect. They forget about the largest organ of the body – skin that has lots and lots of nerve endings. The flesh of feet does not absorb heat. The ouch factor kicks in long before any heat in absorbed.

I don’t know what the firewalking instructor did to annoy the production team of that programme as they bring in a firefighter to measure the temperature of the embers. Any television programmes I’ve been involved with ask me to talk on camera. He looks very creepy cuddling up close to the firefighter. Who on earth wears white clothing when tending a firewalk?

How many people are tending the fire? Far too many firewalk providers have only one person outside tending the fire but what if an emergency occurs and they are out there on their own?

There should be a minimum of 2 people tending the fire plus one person per fire area.

What are the people tending the fire wearing? Are they wearing any personal protective equipment? A face mask to protect their airways from smoke inhalation and inhaling the heated air radiating from the fire? A handkerchief or bandana is completely inadequate. Are they wearing long sleeves, long trousers to protect their skin from damage from the heat radiating from the fire they are tending? Are they wearing goggles to protect their eyes from heat and smoke? The googles should be fitted and held by elastic around their head. Clear plastic glasses that fit like reading glasses are not adequate as smoke will still get into their eyes, the plastic is not suitable for high temperatures and they can easily fall off into the fire when they are tending it causing a risk of melted plastic fragments in the fire lane which will stick to walkers’ feet causing burns.

Never ever ever should you see someone tending the fire wearing open toed sandals or flip flops

Are they wearing full length thick suede gloves to protect their hands and forearms from heat and burns?

What equipment are they using? All handles of rakes, shovels, spades should be wooden. Metal handles will heat up quickly. The wooden handled tools are four time more expensive, safety should be a higher priority than money in their pockets.

Are their clothes made of natural fibres or manmade? Manmade material melts and sticks to skin if it comes close to fire and high temperatures.

If the people tending the fire don’t appear to be aware of their own personal protection or have chosen not to protect themselves from the fire and radiated heat, how much thought or care do you imagine that they have put into protecting your health and wellbeing?

Where are the firewalking instructor and fire tenders when people are firewalking? They should be close to the walkers to offer support if needed and to look after people’s health and wellbeing should they forget to look after their own health by attempting to look cool on a firewalk.

I’ve never understood why some firewalks have people standing at the end of the firelane. It’s usually a man standing with their arms outstretched as though they are expecting to be hugged. Who is this person to the firewalkers? One of the fire team who is red faced, sweaty, smelly and male? A stranger? Its uncomfortable to watch women trying to avoid this person, who then still attempts to make contact either by patting them on the shoulder/arm or high fiving them. Stop it, stop it now! It is unnecessary, it is inappropriate.

There can two people standing at the end of the firelane who then physically prevent the walker from going further. If the purpose of the firewalk is to breakthrough fear barriers and to eliminate self-limiting beliefs, then why do you have people physically stopping them from going further, limiting their travel?

Is there any turf under the fire? When a fire is built on top of grass it burns through the grass and at least a couple of centimetres of the soil. There could be anything in that soil, ring pulls, crisp packets, coins, broken glass, bottle tops, plastic. Anywhere humans have been on this planet, they leave rubbish behind them. Even if there is a bin within arm’s reach, some people are just too lazy to walk the couple of steps to get to that bin. Over time rubbish can end up trampled into the ground with grass growing over the top. It is impossible to know what is in the soil under grass. This rubbish, if exposed, will heat up and injure anyone who firewalks on it. It doesn matter if initially there is a lot of embers. Embers are fragile and crush underfoot which is why we at Blaze regularly rake over fresh embers on our firewalks.

There should be at least three layers of good quality turf under a fire to protect the ground from heat damage. It is the thickness of the soil not the grass which prevents heat getting through to the ground that the fire is built upon.

A firewalk provider should always protect the property that have allowed them to have a firewalk. The venue owners should not be left with burnt grass or a large blackened area that will take years for grass to regrow.

THERE SHOULD NEVER BE CONGA LINES The people at the back of these lines have to hop on the spot increasing their time on the firewalk.

NOR SHOULD BE THERE LINES OF FIRE TO WALK THROUGH Some absolute eejits pour lines of paraffin which are lit with a butane torch. The walkers then must walk through knee high lines of fire. I say they must as they aren’t told about it until they are outside in front of spectators placing undue peer pressure upon them.

I have video of one Carlisle based firewalk provider who does this who then walked about beside the flames carrying the butane torch by his side and over his right shoulder when walking with a very young child who was also on his right.

Is the end of the firewalk clear of obstacles and people to allow a clear unimpeded exit from the firelane? There should be no buckets or trays of water (Have you ever watched videos or excitable people jumping into paddling pools? What happens?)

Previous walkers, photographers, fire team members and baskets of fire should not be near to the end of the fire lane. The end should be clear before the next walker starts.

Where do they source the wood for their firewalks? Not a single tree is felled for Blaze firewalks. We source our wood from local timber-based manufacturers. They used to pay to have their offcuts destroyed. We collect, inspect and cut the wood to meet our needs. Timber that has been bought for firewalks comes in plastic covers or bags made of netting. More rubbish that will be discarded after firewalks. The white bags that you will see Blaze use to hold wood for transporting are reused until they begin to fall apart. If there aren’t any holes for the wood to fall out they will be reused.

A wee bit more about me: I’ve been firewalking for 25 years, and have been with Blaze, the Firewalking Experts for 14 years. I have over 2000 firewalking events under my feet.

Prior to becoming the only full time female firewalking instructor in the world, I was a registered nurse for 22 years working in critical care.

Blaze created the concept of fundraising firewalks over 30 years ago. Before that time there had been firewalks on all continents for different reasons but no-one had thought about using it as a means to raise much needed funds.

Today approximately 90% of firewalks in the UK are fundraising events. Blaze have had the biggest impact on the popularity of firewalking in the UK.

We’ve firewalked with charities, fundraisers, for teambuilding and motivational events with corporates including companies with ￡65billion portfolios. With sports teams, television and film productions and the military including the Gurkhas. Our events come through word of mouth referrals or from people who have taken part in our firewalks who go on to hosting their own. We dont market our events or spend time on social media as we prefer talking face to face or on the phone.

Following an increasing number of people calling to tell us about their experience with other firewalk providers I thought that I would write this guide as it appears that firewalking safety and standards are not considered a priority with many.

We’re regularly asked for our expert opinion regarding health and safety aspects of firewalking and what impact firewalking has. The most recent being with the Wall Street Journal (again)

I'm always happy to talk about all things firewalking and more