On August 28th at 2:58AM PDT, just as the moon disappeared from the shadow of the earth, David Paul Addis fired a flare at The Man resulting in a premature burning of the festival's icon. The San Francisco man faces a felony arson charge in connection with the fire. Addis claims that he is the sole surviving member of the satirical group, Black Rock Intelligence, or "the CIA of Burning Man". Addis plans to plead not guilty when he is scheduled to appear in Sept. 25th in Nevada's Pershing County Courthouse.

The Man burned for over 30 minutes before being put out by local firemen. The structure was burned and the green tarp covering The Green Pavilion also caught on fire.

Participants who witnessed the premature burning were split. There were those that cheered the burn, and chants of Free Paul Addis became a quick mantra within the community. And there were those that felt the act was a selfish act of terrorism and arson, and took away from the experience of a record 45,000 participants.

The Man was resurrected on Thursday afternoon complete with a phoenix symbol on his face. Security was high through the rest of the week, and the Green Man Pavilion was only open for a few moments on Friday.

The Second Man was burned as schedule on Saturday at 10:00PM.

Photo by me.