Trekked from eclipse to his ‘Burning’ fate

THE BURNING MAN reveler who died after he ran into the bonfire at the center of the festival was a construction worker originally from Oklahoma who loved the outdoors.

Aaron Mitchell slipped past a metal security fence and a team of security guards at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the annual arts and music fest in the Nevada desert. He ran directly toward the blazing, 50-foot effigy as security personnel gave chase.

Mitchell was living in Switzerland with his wife before he came to the U.S. to watch the Aug. 21 solar eclipse in Oregon, his mother, Johnnye Mitchell, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Her son was attending his first Burning Man festival, she said.

“He’s 41, but they are always your baby,” she said, noting she last saw her son Aug. 1.

“He was loving and a nice person,” she added. “Joel liked hiking and outdoors, running.”

His father is struggling to come to terms with his death. “You just never want something like this to happen,” Donald Mitchell said.

On Sunday, event organizers made “emotional support teams” available to attendees.

“Now is a time for closeness, contact and community. Trauma needs processing. Promote calls, hugs, self-care, check-ins, and sleep,” the group said in a statement.