So this would be Sir Beligerent enjoying a mild belch from the Veg. As the fireball expanded, he executed a nice drop
and roll to avoid the heat. Needless to say, I didn't have a problem with him for the remainder of the evening.
In fact, he made sure everyone around him stayed well back too. Funny how that works.

The beauty of Burning Man is that Darwinism reigns supreme. Your ticket to says
'YOU RISK SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH BY ATTENDING THIS EVENT'
and they ain't kidding. Besides, he wasn't that close, the pic looks worse than it really was.
He was definitely closer than we wanted "crowd people", but we had the safety crew in spots that were
even closer than this. Notice I'm only 10 feet behind him with my camera... but I was dressed in low-flams
and I was *expecting* it, he wasn't. I have to give him points for kicking in the correct survival skills -
drop and roll. He also re-iterated the important creedo to everyone in the crowd - this is a bad place to be stupid.

When Jim opened it up, the flame went about 220 feet. Too bad I didn't get a picture of it. It was
mesmerizing, terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. Oh, and did I mentiont that it was hotter
than hell? After 2 firings, one of the nozzels came loose & fuel was leaking from the firing tube.
We had a huge crowd of people who were not sober & wanted more. Not a good time to say "it's broken, sorry!'.
We're standing around looking down the barrel of the Veg & Jim's saying he would have to plasma cut the barrel
open to put the nozzel back on - at least 2 hours of work. DAMN! Now here's one of those not-thinking-clearly-moments
I was talking about earlier..."Hey Jim, I have small hands, I bet I can fit my hand in there & screw the nozzel back on".
We hastily sent someone over to center camp to buy ice at Antartica. I think we put around 3 bags on the the barrel and
they sputtered and steamed into nothing within moments. "Is it cool yet?" FUCK OUCH, no it's NOT! Get more ice...Or
pour the margaritas on it or something." Another few bags of ice & random donated alcoholic beverages later and it's
tolerable to touch. So, I pull up my sleeve, cup the nozzel in my fingers & go for it. Fiddle, fiddle, catch, turn AH!
"OK, I've got it on the threads, now I just have to tighten it" HOORAY, we're in business again!

It was at this moment that I realized I was tighly wedged up to my elbow in the barrel of a flamethrower
with 50+ gallons of fuel and a tank of nitrogen at the other end of it. OH MY GOD, WHAT THE F#*K AM I DOING?
"Jim, where is the !KEY! to the Veg?" "Ummm, I think I left it in the ignition, but don't worry the firing button
is locked down...I think" ~look of horror ~ "JUST KIDDING!, the key is right here!" That was so NOT funny.

We rolled the Veg back around & cleared the perimiter again. Man this is gonna be good. Perimters clear? Yup, let her rip!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHH!
About 3 ooo's into that whoosh, a 30' chunk of our perimeter gasp, turn to haul ass, then drop & roll out of
'the way' as the firestream bellows toward us. We can hear the rest of the folks on the opposite side hooting, hollering
and screaming their congratulations that we are successfully getting out of the way. All I remember is hot, damn hot, and
this might be very bad. That was WAY too close. No one had noticed that the wind had changed direction by 90 degrees
while we were fixing the Veg. Instead of firing with the wind, it was now firing perpendicular to it & that wind was
coming straight at us on the west perimiter. It was scary, but at the same time, thrilling...I guess I say that because
I'm alive, skin and body hair unscathed. When we got back to camp, we got to see our mass 'retreat & roll' on video -
it was pretty hilarious. We were religious about checking the wind direction after that.