Stompy

Say you were completely covered in gas from head to toe and were set on fire... how long until you died/passed out?

Are we talking seconds, minutes, and would you actually be conscious during the whole thing or would your body make you pass out from the overload of pain/heat?

I was wondering this after reading the story on CNN about a man dousing himself (and a van) in gas and setting it on fire.

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asaris

I imagine it would be pretty quick; less than a minute before you passed out from heat and flame, a couple more before death. But that's just a guess.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Nefir

I would think your heart would explode/fail pretty quickly from the heat. That and you would not get enough oxygen for your brain to stay conscious. Then again, I could be way off. I've never been set on fire yet.

I say a minute or so until death.

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kutulu

It also is strongly dependant on what medium you use to set yourself on fire.

sky_driver

Who cares about how long till death. I just would not want to suffer.

CoachAlan

On that note:

A friend of the family is an off road racer. One year during Baja, his race car caught on fire and he was in it so long, his fireproof suit started to melt (and his skin along with it). He survivied the ordeal, and eventually told us about it.

He said that at first it really sucked, but once the burns were severe enough, the nerve damage (plus the shock, presumably) was enough to effectively deaden the pain while he patiently waited to die.

No such luck in the recovery, though. Being a burn victim is about the worst recovery there is as far as pain is concerned.

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hossified

i would imagine the pain to only last say 20-30 secs....the human body / brain is amazing at 'hiding' the pain....through shock. The tough part would be the lack of oxygen from the falmes eating it up.

kazoo

The heated gases should provide sufficient respiratory insult to cause death in short order. Once the brain is deprived of oxygenated blood for 3-5 minutes, put a fork in ya-you're done.

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Delirious

There are videos floating around on the internet of people set on fire. If you really want to you can see for yourself.

Erlein

Well, I couldn't tell you how long before you'd pass out...but in under a minute your nerve endings would be fried from where the flames were and you would cease to feel pain in those areas.

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RespectThat

mmm tasty

freeload

If you decide to not hold your breath, but continue breathing you would destroy your lungs -> suffication.....oh..you would be burned too.