Last night, we saw a part of town having a traffic blockage
We got down to see the commotion
It turned out to be a firewalk
Firewalkers are not actually firewalkers
They are really coal walkers
Someone lights the fire well ahead of time
to allow the wood to burn down to non-flaming coals
The coals start out as pieces of wood
But because they've been burning for a while before the stunt,
the coals have burned down to nearly pure carbon, like charcoal
If you were to pick up one of these pure-carbon coals,
you would notice that it is extremely light
This lightweight carbon structure is a poor conductor of heat
It takes a relatively long time for heat to transfer
from the glowing coal to your skin
Now, add to that the fact that ash is a very good insulator
People actually used to use ash to insulate iceboxes
The red-hot coals covered with ash
transfer their heat even more slowly
because the ash acts as a layer of insulation
