Why do people hold their arms straight out when they go on fire?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have seen many people go on fire. It is probably because they have been consumed by Satan. They invariably hold their arms out and walk kind of like mummies for a short time. Only instead of arms perfectly still, they slowly wave them around as if searching for obstacles.

Why do they all do this? Why not stop drop and roll? Or duck 'n cover? I can possibly understand that if you’re being consumed by the lick of fire, maybe you can’t see properly because of the heat and thus need to feel around for obstacles. Ok, then why walk forward in the first place, and why so slowly?? Panicked people run, not a slow sleepwalk. This mummy matter makes me mystified.

By the way my source of information is cable TV. It’s real because I saw it with my own eyes.

2

Because the director told them to.

3

Often, people on fire will run.

4

Ok, yes, in all seriousness I guess I meant:

Is there a safety issue with the stunt (wo)man such that s/he has to remain in forward motion and wave about? If I was a director I think I’d rather have screaming and running and slapping. That’s just me.

I remember watching some David Blaine special or something where his choreographed goal (coordinated with the extinguisher crew) was distance, not time. He would fall straight down when he was done or had enough.

5

Visual effect, artistic license and quite possibly the magic of misdirection?
Q:while you were watching the person on fire waving their arms, was there anything that David Blaine’s team didn’t want you to see? :wink:

6

Yeah, the team didn’t want us to see the end of the show. But they couldn’t have known that during filming.

As I recall, this filler segment was Blaine’s first fire stunt and his mother was all worried filmed on tape. It was all filler, but the flame was real. David waved his hands like a mummy just like he was supposed to. (From memory, you understand… they spend 95% of the show with filler like this, and 5% of David’s fake antics.)

They do it in action/horror blatant fiction stuff too. No reason for misdirection. It’s just “the way it has to be”, and I’m wondering why.

7

[Would use Edit if I could, damn 5 min timer]

Even if there is some waving of the hands with Blaine, someone had to wear that fire suit and become inflamed. Stunt double or otherwise. So I say again, why did the enflamed individual choose to walk like a mummy? Or why did his boss make him? Have there ever been any go-on-fires gone wrong, in which the stunt person sued the director because of the unreasonable mummy walk? Seems like a slam dunk case. At the very least, the court docs will detail the defense, and therefore possibly the answer.

8

Normally it’s stunt men who play this part and having seen it all already, they’re totally unfazed, hence the mummy walk. Now what they need to so is find some hypochondriac little shit, take away his panic attack medicine and feed him a couple of lines of meth. When they light him on fire, you’re gonna see some action, Jack!

9

<Quick forum check, IMHO, OK to speculate> Perhaps the fire suits are a bit bulky, sort of like the padded attack dog training suits? Certainly running wildly about and waving arms, etc. either accelerate the flames or risk extinguishing them, depending on flame producing agent used. And you most likely don’t want to cause the flames to get caught up in any tight corners/bodily crevices if at all possible. Ever put some alcohol or lighter fluid in the palm of your hand and light it to amuse/amaze your pre-teen friends? Trust me, you don’t want to let any of that flaming goodness run down between your fingers and onto the back of your hand!

10

But running would be dangerous! OK, that was only half serious. The light from the flames will contract the stunt person’s pupils, making it harder to see things that they might trip or run into. No one wants to pay workmans comp claims.

Also, if they want fairly close-up shots, it’s harder for a camera to track a faster moving object while keeping it properly in frame. If it’s out of frame, it has to be reshot. And that costs $$$. My guess would be that long distance shots of people on fire could handle a runner more easily, but that zoomed out shots don’t have the same emotional impact.

I’d also guess that the arms are held out to show off the human body shape (that’s a real person on fire!) and to show off the fire (assuming the arms are on fire, it increases the spread - and adds flame dynamics if the arms are flailing around).

11

These sound sufficient for me: too much movement might cause flaming gasoline to go somewhere nobody wants it to go, or just as bad put out the flames. At the same time, the director wants a clear recognizably human image, with lots of flame all around; so the arms need to be away from the body. The director has also spent a bunch of money on a stunt, so they don’t want some quarter-second shot of a person putting out flames, they want a long lingering shot of the burning person. But just standing still is too boring, so the stuntperson needs to walk, with their arms away from the body, not moving too quickly, and not putting the flame out. Boom, you’ve got yourself a Burning Mummy :trade_mark:.

12

Wouldn’t too much movement increase the fire’s access to oxygen, thus feeding the fire?

13

Stuntmen move while on fire to show you it’s a real person alit and not a dummy. Same reason they move a lot during a freefall.

14

Ok, we are lighting a person on fire, and worried about workman’s comp from them stubbing a toe? Am I the only one who sees humor in this? Heheh fun stuff.

I would hope the film is insulated from such claims by stuntpersons basically asking for it. i.e. 1099 only.

Moving around for effect makes sense. As a viewer though, someone screaming “ooooo it burns!” would be more interesting than the slow mummy walk. Maybe some charred flesh falling off and exposed bone. That, I’d watch. Probably easily done, too.

15

If I was on fire, and decided to walk somewhere, I’d probably extend my arms in front, so that I wouldn’t have to open my eyes, assuming I still had eyes at this point. If I didn’t have eyes, I’d still probably extend my arms, in case I bumped into a post or something. Think how awful that would be - on fire, no eyes AND a broken nose.

16

You aren’t living right.

Wish You Were Here.

17

I don’t think the “mummy walk” is required. Case in point, the video for Southern California by Wax (directed by Spike Jones)

18

Having been doused in gasoline and then catching fire, I can attest that the arms out front mummy walk is not natural, at least, not for me.

For me, it was run around in circles, arms by my side. I probably only made one or two circles until I remembered, in the back of my very confused brain, what I had been told decades earlier as a child. “If you ever find yourself on fire, don’t run, but stop, drop, and roll.” This always seemed stupid to me, particularly the “If you every find yourself on fire” part. But, for some reason, I remembered those words and I stopped, dropped and rolled around and got the flames to go out, only very mild 2nd degree burns on my chest.

For those interested, I was working on a riding lawn mower that wouldn’t start. I suspected an ignition problem, so I took the spark plug out, ground it against the block, and jumpered the starter with the ignition on. The motor turned over, spraying me with gas (it was severely flooded, the carburetor float having a hole in it), then the spark plug working fine, igniting me. I was alone. 20 years ago, this spring.

I suspect the “mummy walk” has more to do with trying to control the fire. Fast moving, waving arms, will only make the fire burn hotter, which is going to reduce the length of the movie shot. More film for the fire, so to say.

So, if you ever do find yourself on fire, remember, Stop, Drop, and Roll. It works.

excavating (for a mind)
My guess is the

19

From the “Behind the Scenes” part of the Watchmen dvd, they’re not necessarily wearing a suit. In that movie, a prison inmate got set on fire wearing pajama bottoms and nothing else; he did the mummy shuffle out of his cell, walked about 20 feet down the cell block and then fell onto a fireproof pad where he got doused.

Since he was supposed to be naked from the waist up, they used something called fire gel, which looked like a clear, goopy mess. He said it’s been around “forever”, so you’ve probably seen it in use a lot. Once he was completely covered in that, they poured something flammable on top of it and set it on fire.

Watchwords for safety: No sudden movements. No bending at the elbows or shoulders as that might rub off the fire gel and let the burning stuff get to you. Shuffle slowly forward until you get to the people with the fire extinguishers.

20

Arms out in front like the stereotyped sleepwalker?

Or arms out to the sides, like Kim Phuc, 9-year old Vietnamese girl doused in napalm, 1972? (Yes, for you young’uns, this photo was published on the front page of New York Times and, IIRC, also on the cover of Time Magazine.)

Or like Thich Quang Duc, Saigon, 1963, who torched himself to protest the Diem regime, and just sat there quietly until he morphed into a lump of charcoal? According to the writings of his brother-in-monastery Thich Nhat Hanh, he meditated for weeks ahead of time to prepare himself.