Colin Decker is blazing his way into the Guinness World Record books.
The Vancouver stuntman surpassed the world record for longest full-body burn on the weekend, using his company’s patented fire-retardation gel to accomplish the death-defying feat.
Colin Decker - Longest full-body burn photo
“It was my fourth attempt at it,” Decker told The Province on Monday.Decker credited ideal weather conditions for his successful burn.
Burning from head to toe for three minutes and 27 seconds puts him ahead of Ted Batchelor, who is the current holder of the world record, according to Guinness, with a full-body burn for two minutes and 38 seconds.
When Decker tried to break the record a year ago, he was thwarted by swirling winds.
“They pushed fire in my face all the time,” he recalled. “I had no other choice than to burn the hell out of my face or pull the chute and do it another day.”
Decker, his partner in Fire 4 Hire, Dustin Brooks, and a number of friends pulled off their biggest stunt on Saturday afternoon in the Maple Ridge backyard of a friend.
The friend, another stuntman in the movie industry, “loves a good barbecue,” Decker joked.
He said the heat became too great toward the end of the stunt, but he never panicked.
“I knew where I needed to get to and I knew where my safeties were,” he said.
“At the end, I did the nasty plunge into the pool,” Decker said of a kiddie pool that had been filled with water.
“We had seven people on extinguishers, as well, and an exterior water source.”
The protective gel is a proprietary secret.
Decker and Brooks have performed fiery stunts in about 50 movies, TV productions and live performances since they formed Fire 4 Hire in 2005.
“The trick to the burn is that you have to continually add to the fuel you have on you because you are consuming fuel at an alarming rate,” he confided. (That way, the fire burns the fuel and not the gel.)
The gel developed by Decker and Brooks was nominated for an Oscar in 2007, but did not win the Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement.
“I couldn’t have done it without all the people that surrounded me on Saturday,” he added.
The Vancouver stuntman surpassed the world record for longest full-body burn on the weekend, using his company’s patented fire-retardation gel to accomplish the death-defying feat.
“It was my fourth attempt at it,” Decker told The Province on Monday.Decker credited ideal weather conditions for his successful burn.
Burning from head to toe for three minutes and 27 seconds puts him ahead of Ted Batchelor, who is the current holder of the world record, according to Guinness, with a full-body burn for two minutes and 38 seconds.
When Decker tried to break the record a year ago, he was thwarted by swirling winds.
“They pushed fire in my face all the time,” he recalled. “I had no other choice than to burn the hell out of my face or pull the chute and do it another day.”
Decker, his partner in Fire 4 Hire, Dustin Brooks, and a number of friends pulled off their biggest stunt on Saturday afternoon in the Maple Ridge backyard of a friend.
The friend, another stuntman in the movie industry, “loves a good barbecue,” Decker joked.
He said the heat became too great toward the end of the stunt, but he never panicked.
“I knew where I needed to get to and I knew where my safeties were,” he said.
“At the end, I did the nasty plunge into the pool,” Decker said of a kiddie pool that had been filled with water.
“We had seven people on extinguishers, as well, and an exterior water source.”
The protective gel is a proprietary secret.
Decker and Brooks have performed fiery stunts in about 50 movies, TV productions and live performances since they formed Fire 4 Hire in 2005.
“The trick to the burn is that you have to continually add to the fuel you have on you because you are consuming fuel at an alarming rate,” he confided. (That way, the fire burns the fuel and not the gel.)
The gel developed by Decker and Brooks was nominated for an Oscar in 2007, but did not win the Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement.
“I couldn’t have done it without all the people that surrounded me on Saturday,” he added.
