Festival ends; man dies in fire
Burning Man attendee ran into ritual fire
BLACK ROCK CITY, NEV. Under unusually heavy security, Burning Man’s tens of thousands of participants finished their annual ritual by burning an elaborate wooden temple a day after a man was burned to death in another fire.
More than 600 volunteers and staff ringed the perimeter of the Temple, backed up by a hastily installed metal security fence. The fence and additional security were new conditions sought by federal land managers, said Burning Man co-founder Crimson Rose.
Authorities said Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, died Sunday morning after he ran into the burning Man structure fire Saturday night. Rose said federal Bureau of Land Management officials wanted Burning Man to call off the temple burn, the ceremonial finish to the week-long festival of 70,000 people in the Nevada desert. She said the government wanted 350 extra security guards. Burning Man found nearly double that number.
“We are showing the government we can step forward,” she said as she joined with other perimeter guards. “It is a testament to our spirit. We have a ritual to complete.”
Authorities are still investigating Mitchell’s death. Rose, who helped manage security for the fire in which Mitchell was burned, said it’s still not clear if he was running directly into the fire or was running toward it and then fell when perimeter guards tried to stop him. Mitchell was not drunk, authorities said, but toxicology tests are pending. Rose said Burning Man staff are still struggling with what, if anything, they could have done to prevent the man from running into the inferno.
“We ask that all the time,” she said. “Why would anybody do anything like that? He was determined. It’s bewildering. I just go ‘why?’ ”
Mitchell’s death added an unusually somber tone to a Sunday night ritual filled with emotion. For the past week, festival attendees decorated the wooden temple with memories, photos, cremation ashes and other items they wanted carried on the flames. Once the flames were lit, tens of thousands of them watched in silence as the orange flames leaped hundreds of feet skyward before raising their voices in a coordinated howl and falling silent.
Mitchell was at his first Burning Man, according to his mother, Johnnye Mitchell. She said her son grew up in McAlester, Okla., but was living in Switzerland with his wife. Mitchell was photographed racing toward the fire around 10:30 p.m. PT during the climax of the annual arts festival Saturday night, where a 40-foot wooden statue is set on fire.
One safety ranger who witnessed the incident teared up as she told her campmates early Sunday morning how she tried but failed to stop Mitchell.
Photos of the incident show Mitchell racing toward the fire, dodging multiple safety rangers, and then plunging into the flames. Firefighters in fire-resistant gear pulled him out, rushed him to the on-site medical clinic, and then airlifted him to University of California-Davis Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center. He died at the burn center, authorities said.
The Pershing County Sheriff said Sunday night that the initial rescue efforts were hampered because a portion of the burning structure was falling as rescue workers tried to pull Mitchell from fire.