Yesterday in Nobleton, Ontario, thespadeinator spotted what is quite possibly the world’s smallest fire truck.

via Death and Taxes

This incredible helmet camera video shows a crew of firefighters performing an “interior attack” on a fire inside a two story house.

via Blame It On The Voices & Reddit

video via smokeEatingtrucky

The Third Rock Fire Pit is a three foot wide sculptural fire pit that is shaped like Earth. The fire pit was created by artist Rick Wittrig.

via DudeIWantThat.com & The Awesomer

Montreal-based photographer Benjamin Von Wong wanted to capture the image of a man on fire, so he did the only reasonable thing: He set a man on fire. Filmmaker Erwan Cloarec was on hand to document the photo shoot:

via PetaPixel

Pyrotopia, a new fire arts festival just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is scheduled for April 27 and 28, 2012. The event was originally planned for October of last year but was rescheduled due to logistical issues.

“Fire Drawings” are fire art pieces in which elaborate designs are scorched into wood. The designs are etched into the wood panels, the etchings are filled with flammable paint, and then the paint is allowed to slowly burn (video). “Fire Drawings” are by London-based design company Studio Glithero.

The protagonist in the Fire Drawings is a flame. It travels through time over a path of flammable screen-printed paint, multiplying or merging together, drawing, leaving a decorative charcoal trace as it goes along.

via Have You Seen This

Fireplace by Ted Martens is an interactive pixelated fireplace for Mac or PC. Commands like “marshmallow” and “hotdog” enhance the interactive fireplace experience. The digital log burns down to ash in about 30 minutes.

via Waxy

photo 1 by The Verge, photo 2 by Justin, and photo 3 by David R.

Mark Day shot an awesome video of Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple being played on a Flamethrower Guitar at Burning Man 2011.

Cook it outside

More than one-third of fires involving a fryer start in a garage or patio. Cook outdoors at a safe distance from any buildings or trees and keep the fryer off any wooden structures, such as a deck or patio.

William Shatner is starring in Eat, Fry, Love, an entertaining State Farm Insurance public service announcement created to raise awareness about the dangers of turkey fryers. They are encouraging people to use the hashtag #ShatnersFryersClub to comment on the video and to let them know how you are keeping safe from turkey fryer fires.

And in a complementary video, they demonstrate what an actual turkey fryer fire looks like with the help of Illinois Fire Service Institute:

via Viral Viral Videos

The SAT 119 is a throwable bottle of fire extinguishing chemicals that bursts upon impact, dousing the flames (see a video demonstration). The SAT 119 is by Singapore-based BONEX.

via One Cool Thing a Day

Instructables Community Manager Randy Sarafan has posted detailed instructions on how to make his Flamethrower Jack-O’-Lantern with a very explicit warning:

This pumpkin is extremely dangerous and you definitely should not make one of these. The instructions were posted here are for entertainment purposes only. I do not condone the manufacture or use of flamethrowing jack-o’-lanterns. Seriously, nothing good will come of making one of these. Don’t do it.

But should you wish to ignore that warning, he’s gone to great lengths to document how he built his dangerous pyro-pumpkin. (Luckily, it’s a fairly complicated project for the average person.)

A flamethrowing jack-o’-lantern keeps the trick-or-treaters a safe distance from your house and is a fine addition to any anti-Halloween arsenal. At the first sign of any sugar-obsessed imp, simply press the trigger button and wirelessly shoot a one-second burst of flames out of the jack-o’-lantern’s mouth. This plume of hellfire will make even the most bold of people think twice about approaching your door. Very few people are willing to risk life and limb for the chance of a tiny box of milk duds.

photos by Randy Sarafan

This astonishing helmet camera footage of firefighters battling a house fire is from Burn, an upcoming documentary about the struggles of Detroit’s firefighters. The Detroit Fire Department faces one of the highest per capita arson and fire rates in the world. The film is directed by Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez. They are raising funds on Kickstarter in order to finish the film for a 2012 release.

BURN is a documentary about Detroit, told through the eyes of its firefighters, who risk their lives to save a city that many have written off as dead. Detroit firefighters have a front-line look at issues many American cities are just beginning to face. Along with the foreclosure boom, arson fires in Detroit have skyrocketed. The reasons vary: Homeowners desperate to get out from under mortgages, gangs and drug dealers out for revenge, bored teens failed by the education system. The end result is a city struggling to cope with one of the highest per capita arson and fire rates in the world.

via Doobybrain.com

Fire Kit by 5.5 Designers, is a lovely table lamp that looks like a mini campfire, available through Skitsch London.

via The World’s Best Ever

A group of people helped lift a burning car to save a motorcyclist who was trapped under the car after a collision.

via Associated Press & Viral Viral Videos

Michael Holden shot some great photos of last night’s annual burning of the man at Burning Man 2011.

Here’s Michael’s full gallery of amazing photos from this year’s event.

via Burning Blog

photo by Michael Holden

Professional surfer Bruce Irons describes how he and his team of surfers were riding waves with a lit flare in Mentawai Islands in Sumatra, Indonesia on the Red Bull Minor Threat surfing tour. A photo of Bruce surfing with a flare was used for the cover of the July/August issue of Australian surf magazine Stab.

via Super Punch

Outdoor survival enthusiast Tim Jones demonstrates how to start a fire with a block of ice.

via reddit

Pyrotopia is a new East Coast fire arts festival that will occur on October 7 and 8, 2011 at the UnSmoke Artspace in Braddock, PA near Pittsburgh. The festival will be free and organizers intend for it to become an annual event (according to the organizers, it will be the East Coast’s only annual fire arts festival). Festival organizers are raising funds for the event on Kickstarter.

Watch the flames come to life at Pyrotopia, a two-day celebration of humankind’s fascination with fire! See fire performances, sculptures and demos; play interactive fire games; watch fabulous fireworks; learn about fire as a scientific and artistic medium; marvel at costumes and installations using electricity, LEDs and EL-wire; and more. This event is free and open to the public.

Steve Bage created a new edit of the 1994 Survival Research Labs show in San Francisco “A Calculated Forecast of Ultimate Doom”, using footage orginally edited and directed by Leslie Asako Gladsjo. Here’s SF Weekly’s write-up of the show.

Aaron Amatnieks created Firestorm, an amazing LEGO Dragon that breathes actual fire.

via The Brothers Brick

“Tympani Lambada” is the next big flaming thing from San Francisco fire arts group Flaming Lotus Girls. The 64 foot long sculpture, which will debut at Burning Man 2011, is inspired by the vestibular structure of the inner ear and will incorporate flame, sound, and LED light effects. Flaming Lotus Girls are raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

From a distance, bursts of fire outline sensual curves in the sky. Fiery arches intrigue and invite approach. Soaring at impossible angles and creating a slight sense of vertigo, the sculpture’s undulations echo with subtle rumbles and hums. Bulbous shapes on the ground glow red and roar with intense colorful fire flickering in their depths. Tendon-like structures stretch over the interior space of the sculpture, forming an intimate gathering place. Controls scattered throughout allow interaction with fire and light elements, accompanied by sound effects.

The Practical Pyromaniac by Make Magazine editor William Gurstelle is both a collection of tales from mankind’s history of studying fire, and a handy guide on how to make tornadoes of fire and other historical pyro experiments.

Combining science, history, and DIY pyrotechnics, this book for the workbench warrior explains humankind’s most useful and paradoxical tool: fire. From Franklin’s stove to Diesel’s engine, explosive and fascinating tales are told of the great pyromaniacs who scientifically revealed the mysteries of fire such as “Gunpowder” Joseph Priestly, who discovered oxygen; Antoine Lavoisier, the father of chemistry; and Humphrey Davy, whose chemical discoveries and fiery inventions saved thousands of lives. By following the directions inside, the curious can replicate these breakthrough scientists’ experiments and inventions from the simply fascinating one-candlepower engine to the nearly magical fire piston and an incredible tornado of fire.

Fans of science and mayhem might also be interested in Gurstelle’s other books, including Absinthe & Flamethrowers.

Inspired by what he had seen online, Scott built “Frankenhorn Flamebone”, a playable Flamethrower Trombone.

This is a working playing flamethrower trombone that has fire on demand. It is made up from plumbing, torch, and compressed air parts. It took about two weeks and a couple of weekends to complete. It has a 21 foot range with the fireball, and a concussion wave of 150 feet. It can be difficult to play since it has a recoil.

See Previously: Flamethrower Trombone

via The Awesomer

“Fire Painting” by Slovenian artist Sanela Jahic is a fire art installation featuring an array of kerosene flame jets controlled by a sensor glove worn by the artist. To see the installation in action, skip to the 1:30 mark of Jahic’s video demo.

via Make

photos by Mihael Peter Fras

Walking through Greenwich Village last night I spotted the wonderful Garfield themed logo of the now defunct N.Y. Fire Patrol House #2, which was recently purchased by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

photo by Scott Beale