16/11/2022

ETI Sponsors Guild Care Charity Firewalk

Electronic Temperature Instruments (ETI) has sponsored Guild Care‘s Firewalk, to raise money for the charity’s important work. The event took place at Worthing’s South Street Square on Thursday 10th November and raised over £8,384.69 for vulnerable people in the community. 32 people completed the walk, including five members of ETI staff.

Guild Care is Worthing’s leading social care charity, supporting people to live well, enjoy life, and love every day. In addition to their three not-for-profit care homes, they run a wealth of community services that support older people, people living with dementia, and children and adults with learning disabilities.

The Firewalk provided an opportunity for people to conquer their fears whilst raising money to support this valuable cause.

Stephanie Hughes, Thermapen Brand Manager, said: “To say I was nervous was an understatement, especially during training, listening to the extreme temperatures I would be walking across. But the achievement I felt after was amazing; I felt completely empowered and prepared to take on anything! And knowing I was supporting such a great cause made the nervous lead-up completely worth it.”

Learn more about firewalking below.

What is firewalking?

Firewalking is the act of walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers or stones. It has a long history in many cultures as a test or proof of faith, and the act is also used in modern motivational seminars.

What are the benefits of firewalking?

Firewalking can be a life-changing experience. Undertaking a difficult challenge like the walk can provide people with the confidence, inspiration and courage to face fears throughout their life.

How hot is the fire in a firewalk?

To prepare the fire for walking, wooden pallets are set alight and left for around 30 minutes to create embers. Once the embers are reading between 500-900 °C using an infrared thermometer they are raked to remove any lumps or hot spots.

Fire blankets are also laid down and topped with layers of damp turf. The turf absorbs some of the heat. When it’s time for participants to walk across the embers, the fire lane usually measures around 315 °C.

Why doesn’t walking on fire burn your feet?

Feet don’t get burnt walking across embers for a few reasons. Wooden embers and feet are both bad conductors of heat, so the heat isn’t transmitted quickly or easily, unlike metal, for example. In addition, the uneven surface means that the surface area of the foot touching the embers is very small.

The walkers also move quickly over the path, minimising contact time, which doesn’t give the conduction a chance to take place. It’s important for the walkers not to run, however, as this pushes the feet deeper into the embers.