Man Sues For Being Burned at Burning Man

On the upside, the suit has been dismissed. Downside? Is there one? Well, I guess if you're the idiot who walked into a fire.

If you approach the flames at the Burning Man festival, you're taking your chances of getting burned.

That was the verdict Tuesday from a state appeals court in San Francisco, which refused to reinstate a festivalgoer's damage suit against the promoter of the annual celebration in the Nevada desert.

Anthony Beninati, a Los Angeles-area resident, was badly burned at the September 2005 event in Black Rock City, Nev. A college-educated real estate manager, he was making his third visit to the weeklong festival, which culminates with the incineration of a 60-foot wood sculpture.

Once the Burning Man topples, participants are invited to throw objects into the bonfire. Beninati planned to contribute a photo of a friend who was supposed to come with him but had recently died in a motorcycle accident.

He walked 7 to 10 feet into the burning embers, with flames on either side of him, threw in the photo, then took a few more steps forward, tripped and fell into the fire.

D'oh!

Beninati's suit accused Black Rock of negligently allowing people to approach the fire without safe pathways. But the First District Court of Appeal, upholding a judge's dismissal of the case, said anyone who takes part in an event with obvious dangers - downhill skiing, mountain climbing or walking up to a bonfire - knowingly risks injury.

"By continuing to walk into the fire, Beninati assumed the risk that he might trip and fall," presiding Justice Ignazio Ruvolo said in the 3-0 ruling. "The risk of falling and being burned by the flames or hot ash was inherent, obvious and necessary to the event."

Probably a good bet he was drunk or stoned at the time.

Via Ace.

Burning Man an Arson Victim

A premature burn, I guess you could say.

Burning Man Torched Early; Artist Held

SAN FRANCISCO - Burning Man became Burnt Man four days early on Tuesday, and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.

The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the structure, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said. Event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version, accomplishing in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night's scheduled burning, she said.

The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event. Burning Man, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people, began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990.

Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday's lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m., Grace said.

"It was in plain sight of many people," she said. "Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn't supposed to burn, saying, 'Now what do we do?'"

Now what do you do? Either pack the bong again or get a life, maybe.

Get a load of the freak who sparked it up.

Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County, Nev., jail on suspicion of arson, illegal possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer, according to the sheriff's department. He posted a $25,632 bond, a sheriff's dispatcher said.

Sheriff's officials did not know whether he had a lawyer. No one answered at two phone numbers listed in his name.

Addis is an actor and writer who is active in the San Francisco arts scene and recently portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in a play about the late journalist known for his drug-fueled lifestyle, according to entertainment listings posted on the Internet.