PHOENIX — Emmanuel Aguilar could barely believe it and brushed his fingers across his eyes as a massive blaze erupted in the middle of a Slipknot concert Tuesday night.
"I’ve been to plenty of concerts, but never have I seen a fire that crazy," he said.
It was indeed something new for him and no fire drill in your Arizona desert.
The 80-foot flames broke out mid-concert and hundreds of fans may have wanted out after doing their time at Ak-Chin Pavilion.
"And all I see is a dude picking up a giant lawn chair,” Aguilar recalled. “It's halfway in flames. It's burning off. He just chucks it into the flames I'm just like, ‘Oh my god, I don't know what to say.’"
The fire was in a grassy part of the venue which seats 12,000 behind the covered amphitheater.
Concertgoers captured the flames on video and were seen dancing around the fire burning as if doused in gasoline. It was an experience fans will surely remember before they forget.
"This is all going while they are still playing their song," Aguilar said.
Slipknot had to put the concert on hold as firefighters put out the flames with fans waiting as time elapsed.
"We are really lucky we didn't experience more people that were injured at this incident," Capt. Scott Douglas explained.
Douglas says in situations like that - with so much flammable material nearby - it would have been easy for the fire to get out of control and work its way inside the crowd.
"One fire can spread from one person to another person very quickly," he said.
"To be there in that one place with nothing but metal fans,” Aguilar said. "That energy is unmatched."
Slipknot fans consider the little indiscretion "controlled chaos" despite what could have happened. They still got their concert, and it didn’t get too insane.
"As dangerous as it was,” Aguilar said. “It was harmless at the end."
The cause of the fire is officially still under investigation. Phoenix fire says it will be up to the concert venue if they try to hold anyone responsible.
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