San Francisco Fire Arts Expo - 2005
In September of 2005, a host of San Francisco artists, including Seattle artists Tabasco and Qathi Hart, put on the San Francisco Fire Arts Expo, the first massive Fire Show to take place under the SF Fire Department's Authority. Deadletter, along with Kysa Storey and Edie Bernhardt (of Seattle's Spinergy Fire Arts were invited down by long-standing relationship to help volunteer for fire safety. Many of FUEL's inspiration (and safety standards) grew out of this experience.
Samba do Sol - 2006
In December, 2005, Deadletter moved to the Portland area, and for Burning Man 2006, Spinergy (SEA), Deadletter (PDX), and Samba Ja! (EUG) collaborated to bring a massive flaming Brazilian drum-line to Conclave. The seeds for multi-city fire collaboration were born - though it would several years before all the elements would begin to snap into place.
Foundation of Watershed - 2006
Watershed, PDX, an industrial arts building in Southeast Portland was founded in March of 2006. Deadletter and Wrench quickly gained a reputation with the Portland Fire and Rescue (PF&R) for being incredibly diligent with fire code and safety issues, repeatedly passing annual and special event fire inspections with flying colors. More importantly, PF&R discovered it could work with us, since our first approach is always, "How can we comply, and quickly?"
The Portland SpinJam - 2008
Enter into the story a long-standing tradition of Portland's - under the I-5 freeway just north of the Hawthorne bridge was a years-old "Spin Jam" on Sunday nights, overlapping with an old drum circle. This event had begun to conflict with it's surroundings as two different homeless feeding stations had begun using the parking lot on Sunday nights. Portland Parks Department, the owner of the property, was repeatedly complaining about massive cleanup problems on Monday, as well as complaints from Portland Police Bureau about public inebriation, unsafe audience conditions, etc.
Safety concerns began to come to a head - alcohol and drug use was high among the crowd, including some entirely irascible performers who were resisting any feedback about safety, while unsuspecting public often sat in the front row to see the 'show', with kids in hand, not realizing that they were watching the worst of unregulating fire performance. This led many in Portland's massive Fire community to believe that the poor choices of a few could lead to a city-wide crackdown on indoor and outdoor fire performance. Performers in Portland who maintained insurance and regular permits with PF&R were forced to boycott the event in order to make sure that they weren't affiliated with it's happenings. A team of fire performers, including Deadletter, set out to bring safety gear and audience boundaries to the Spin Jam. Nearly 10 weeks went by in which the drum circle and inebriated crowd were slowly taught to respect the boundaries and standards set out by the PF&R - no gasoline or kerosene, audience separations of 15 feet, water buckets, fire suppression, numbers of safeties, etc.
A domestic violence incident on site precipitated the awareness and involvement of the Portland Parks Department, and a meeting was held with the Portland Parks Department, the Portland Fire Department, and the Fire Safety contingent - an unfortunate side effect of the 2004 "Open Flames" ordinance for parks was that no fire performer could perform without a variance from the ordinance, involving a permit (with insurance). Since no one in their right mind would have pulled insurance and a permit for the free-roving, anarchic street party, the net result was that Fire Safety could no longer set up or try to regulate fire, but the 'drum circle' and its attendant drinking and street party component could not be shut down, except on a case-by-case basis by personally motivated officers. The dangerous street party continued, and the now-safe Spin Jam had to go! The Parks Department expressed their deep regret at the situation, and expressed interest in helping the Portland Fire community find a regular or occasional home, including a home for a massive fire show that was suggested at that meeting.
Fire Regulations Update - 2009
Connected, but thankfully not directly caused by, the issues surrounding the Portland Spin Jam, PF&R began the process of updating its methods for regulating fire performance in Portland. Because of successful communications between PF&R and the community, community members such as Shireen Press were consulted, resulting in a permitting process that is an excellent mix of diligence and reasonableness. As before, individuals are asked to obtain a (free) "Pinkie Permit" from PF&R listing the event and time they will be at, with the addition that the PF&R maintains a list of acceptable venues. Venues are checked thoroughly by a Special Events Inspector for adequate ceiling height, fire suppression and exiting before getting on the list - which eliminates the need for walkthroughs for each and every show, as in Seattle.
FUEL: PDX on Fire - Summer 2009
K8 Madden, a local designer and Burner, had long eyeballed the Portland International Raceway as ideal for a massive Regional Burning Man event, and mentioned it to Deadletter at SOAK in July. An exploratory call to Mark Wigginton, director of the PIR, was very well received. Rather than rent the asphalt, would we be interested in the 16 acres of grass dog park out front? Xandra Green, director of Burning Man's Ice Sales (a critical component of the massive event's Health Department compliance), got on board as designer and human resources director, and we arranged another meeting at the property to take some measurements and contemplate layout - see the 360 video of the empty field here.
FUEL: PDX on Fire - Fall 2009
Labor Day was the deadline for completing a full proposal document. The draft document, numbering 40 pages, was intended to at least address each item including fire, safety, audience, alcohol, security, budget - a draft version of this document is located
here, and would probably be 80 pages today. We took this document to Paul Van Orden in the Portland Noise Bureau office for his preliminary approval, and to Kari Schimel in the PF&R Special Events/Inspections office. We took the Noise Officer's recommendation and contacted Peter Horne Audio to handle audio and noise compliance. We met with Councilmember Randy Leonard's office (they supervise PF&R) and then went in front of the full City Council to announce our plans, with great response from Mayor Sam Adams (Hi Sam!) and council members Amanda Fritz, Randy Leonard and Dan Saltzman all seemed very appreciative. Here's the link.
New People On Board:
Noah Mickens, of Wanderlust Circus fame, joined the team in October/November, and has since wowed us all by taking on the mainstage (in coordination with Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito) and the Dirty Revue. The more talent he handles, the more that Deadletter can work on infrastructure, Xandra on Staff, and Katie on sponsors! We're thrilled he's joined the team, and his long experience with the Wanderlust Circus brings the event a real performance center it was lacking before.
FUEL: PDX on Fire - Spring 2010
Welcome to Spring 2010. We've now met with our major vendors for lighting (Showcall Lighting, Event Power and Lighting), porto-potties (United Site Services), structures (Peter Corvallis Productions), fencing (Oasis), security (Kaye Security). From this point on, Noah Mickens and the Wanderlust Circus begin their magic, recruiting Fire Troupe talent from around the country to come fill the Dan Das Mann/Karen Cusolito mainstage. We are still open to smaller scale fire sculptures and non-fire talent, as well click here for information about getting involved as a performer or staff!
FUEL: PDX on Fire - Summer 2010
The Portland International Raceway will be providing our flyers to every person through the gates from April to September - 400,000 people. Tri-met is giving us 8 weeks of advertising on the buses and trains, and the Wanderlust Street Team will be simultaneously saturating the close-in region and, if possible, the entire I-5 corridor all the way up to Seattle and Olympia. We hope to bring in people from throughout the region interested in seeing an explosive spectacle (like a demolition derby) who will, upon arrival, have their minds blown at the concept of Fire Craft and Technology. We want the children brought along for a fireworks-like spectacle to realize that not only are there hundreds of thousands of different craft careers available to them, but that if they get really excited about Fire Craft, someday they too can make sculptures go boosch.
