- After watching "Raising Dion" Season 2,
we're throwing fireballs.
- Cue the scary effects.
(fire roaring)
(upbeat music)
- I am Kat. I'm an electrical engineer and content creator.
- And I'm Dominic
and I'm a science communicator online.
- So let's review the footage with some friends
who actually know a thing or two about fire.
- Hi, I'm Greg Poljacik, stuntman and fire coordinator.
- I am Jocelyn Ketsdever and I am a circus performer.
I perform fire, LED, and ariel.
- What's up, bro?
♪ They got the iron while I got the steamer ♪
- Yah!
♪ I testify, don't need a subpoena ♪
- Yes!
- I would love to be able to do that. (laughs)
- I'm curious to know, what about the power
is igniting the accelerant?
What's the fuel and how is that fuel controlled?
There has to be a spark that ignites
some sort of fuel and there has to be some heat
to keep that fuel burning.
- In this series, the effects are created digitally.
In order to accomplish them in real life,
we'd have to be able to manipulate ions
and we can't do that.
(Dominic grunts)
(smoke popping)
- Nope.
- Probably because fire isn't really a thing.
- Fire is a chemical reaction
between oxygen in the atmosphere
and a fuel source that burns at a high enough temperature
to create a chemical reaction like this match.
- The reaction breaks down the fuel source into gases
which we see us smoke and solid char,
which is typically pure carbon.
It also produces light and heat, which we perceive as fire.
- And in order for us to throw fire,
we're gonna actually have to throw the fuel source itself,
just like this match.
Why didn't that work?
- Well, throwing the match through the air
cooled it down enough
that the chemical reaction stopped happening.
- So we're gonna need a fuel source that burns so hot
that when I throw it, it doesn't actually cool off.
- We can see in the footage that Dion's fire
doesn't leave any of the fuel source behind.
- But what kind of fuel source would burn
without leaving anything behind?
- Well, I can show you with a little bit of magic.
- Magicians use a special type of paper called flash paper
to add a little pizazz to their tricks.
- The paper is actually made out of nitrocellulose.
So when it burns, it actually breaks up
into tons of little gasses
and leaves no solid residue behind, just like this.
(fire roaring)
- Oh!
(fire roaring)
- Now, I've got this device here
that shoots the flash paper out
and ignites it at the same time,
creating that fireball effect.
- Can I play with it?
- No.
- What do you mean?
I wanna try it. - No!
- Why do you get to do it? - I paid for it.
- No! I wanna do it!
(fire popping)
(Kat laughs)
All right. So it looks like it didn't really work.
- Do you wanna try it?
- Yes, I wanna try it.
Give it to me. - Okay. (laughs)
(fire popping)
- Oh! Didn't work.
- So this flash paper
is made to where it burns rapidly and brightly.
The fuel on it is something that's gonna create
a nice, big, bright flame,
and it's gonna tear through the paper quicker
than just paper on its own.
So now you have an accelerant on it that burns rapidly.
By doing it that fast, It limits the amount of heat
that's gonna get on anything else.
- I mean, I guess, we're just not quite as super
as Dion is, but I think we gave it a good shot.
- We definitely did, but this is not working for us.
- So using the flash paper,
we attempted to light the candle from a few feet away.
- But Dion can throw his fire a lot further than that.
- I can help with that.
(upbeat music)
In the real world, I think that the closest thing
that would come to physically throwing fire
would be either a Rope Dart or a Meteor Dart.
They're both attached to a string
and then it has a wick on the end of it.
The Rope Dart, that would be something
that you would be able to physically throw at people.
And I've seen them get so clos.
When you're able to really fire perform with it
and you work with it enough
that you can get it right next to somebody,
it is an experience to see for sure.
I wish that it could just come outta my hand.
(fire roaring)
(Dion screaming)
(person screaming)
- Thanks for watching "Netflix IRL"
and don't miss "Raising Dion" Season 2
on Netflix now.
(fire popping)
- Woo!