Lyric actor injured in fire accident. (WGN - Chicago)
A fire-breathing stilt walker burned when flames flared up on his face during a dress rehearsal at the Lyric Opera of Chicago is expected to be released from the hospital Thursday, his father told the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s horrifying,” said Clifton Truman Daniel, 55, who was in the audience watching his son Wesley when the mishap occurred late Monday afternoon. “You don’t believe it. At first, everything’s fine. You’re proud of him. You’re amazed at what he’s learned to do, and suddenly he’s in trouble.”
The 24-year-old actor was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital suffering burns to his throat and second-degree burns to his face, fire officials said. Initially, it was thought Daniel was not suffering breathing problems, but he apparently was and was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition, officials said.
Doctors intubated Daniel as a precaution to help him breathe, his father said. But there was no damage to his lungs or airway and the tube was removed Monday night, according to his father.
"Doctors likened them to a severe sunburn and he will heal,” his father said of the burns. “He shouldn’t have any scarring.”
Clifton Daniel said he was happily sitting in the audience of the Lyric Opera, watching his son walk on stilts and spit fire out of his mouth.
He watched as Wesley Daniel picked up a torch and a little jar of fluid and blew two fire balls. Then suddenly his son’s mask was on fire and he started patting his neck and chest before walking across the stage toward stagehands who were carrying fire extinguishers.
Daniel said he ran to his son backstage, where he was being treated with compresses. Paramedics had already been called and his son was upbeat, even giving a thumbs-up, the father said.
Clifton Truman Daniel said he is the grandson of former President Harry S. Truman and Wesley Daniel is the president's great-grandson.
Wesley Daniel said his son graduated from Roosevelt University and has been acting for about three years. He was hired as a back-up for the opera “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” in case someone called in sick or didn’t show up. Wesley Daniel stepped in when an actor was injured last week, his father said.
Tribune photographer Jason Wambsgans, who was at the rehearsal, said it appeared Daniel had spilled propellant "on his chin or his chest or something. It kind of consumed him, and he was staggering across the stage and then fell off his stilts on the opposite side of the stage.”
Wambsgans said he arrived at the rehearsal at the beginning of the third act to take pictures for an upcoming Tribune review of the opera “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.”
The first scene of the third act took about an hour. It was in the second scene when Wambsgans pulled out a long-angle lens to take pictures of the busy stage full of extras, in this case, circus performers. Daniel was one of them.
When it appeared that Daniel, on stilts, was ready to put some sort of propellant in his mouth to shoot fireballs, Wambsgans said he started snapping and captured the flames flaring up on Daniel.
Wambsgans said he saw people in the wings of the stage spraying Daniel with fire extinguishers. “Half of the extras were transfixed by that,” Wambsgans said.
It took about 15 more seconds before the rest of the extras stopped singing and acting, realizing what had happened, he said.
After a 30-minute break, a visibly distressed crew was back rehearsing, Wambsgans said. But the rehearsal was cut short, ending about 6 p.m.
Daniel was wearing a flame-proof costume and mask, a spokeswoman for the Lyric said in an email. The dress rehearsal was interrupted, but it later resumed and was in the last act of “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” by about 5:30 p.m.
Daniel was performing a stunt that had been approved by the Fire Department, according to the Lyric.
jdelgado@tribune.com
lford@tribune.com
ehirst@tribune.com
Father saw 'horrifying' accident injure son during opera rehearsal
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