The walk was held at the campus of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pennsylvania on July 2, 1998. All 15 of the walkers who attempted the 165 foot firebed made it across on their first try. No major injuries were reported. A few pictures and some thoughts about the walk can be found here.
This walk was to gather data on the relationship between time of contact with the coals and temperature of the coals, during a long firewalk.
The intent of this event was to walk a 150 foot firebed. The final length walked was 165 feet. Data was gathered (as individual conditions permitted) on the length and temperature of each individual walk, using infra-red and thermocouple pyrometers. Infra-red photographs were, to the best of my knowledge, taken. The findings of which are yet to be reported.
The event was documented by the BBC for the Discovery Channel and once all the data has been collected and organized, it will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records.
To the best of the author's knowledge the previous longest continuous firebed ever walked was a 120 foot long bed reportedly walked by Sara Raintree, Jim Jarvis and Dan McHale on October 10, 1987 in Redmond, Washington.
Go to World Record
Firewalk Page
Go to Firewalking Home Page
Go to David Willey Home Page