Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

The rise and fall of Lucky Lady Lucy

It took a lot more than a match to bring down the star of ‘Burn Vegas Burn’

Burn Vegas Burn-First Friday

Andrea Domanick

Workers and performers prepare for the burn of “Lucky Lady Lucy” in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, March 2, 2012.

First Friday Burn

A dancer performs in Launch slideshow »
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Workers and performers prepare for the burn of "Lucky Lady Lucy" in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, March 2, 2012.

Click to enlarge photo

Workers and performers prepare for the burn of "Lucky Lady Lucy" in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, March 2, 2012.

Click to enlarge photo

Workers and performers prepare for the burn of "Lucky Lady Lucy" in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, March 2, 2012.

Click to enlarge photo

Workers and performers prepare for the burn of "Lucky Lady Lucy" in downtown Las Vegas on Friday, March 2, 2012.

The burning of the wooden showgirl effigy dubbed "Lucky Lady Lucy" at downtown's First Friday celebration March 2 was a spectacle to behold. Around 9 p.m., Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh lit the fire that gradually engulfed the 20-foot structure, and, minutes later, its flaming arm almost seemed to wave farewell to the crowd as it collapsed into a dazzling, fiery heap.

But Lucy, the star of the city's first Burning Man-inspired "Burn Vegas Burn" event, is far more than an artistically arranged bonfire. She's a feat of engineering that took more than two months to build -- and even longer to design.

Due to the small scale and limited burn time (one to two hours) of Friday's event, Lucy was designed to be a weaker version of her sturdy, steel-enforced sister built for last year's Burning Man in Black Rock City. That structure was built to last for several days. But "weaker" doesn't mean "easier." As it turns out, purposely building a structure to be fragile is trickier than it is to build one to last.

"It took a lot less discussion than building a strong structure, but a lot more design work -- definitely," says Merritt Pelkey, the designer behind both effigies. For example, each of the wooden discs that made up the weaker version featured holes that helped create a vortex for the air and smoke, drawing the flames upward to create a faster, more even burn.

"We wanted her to come down while still in her full form, which would be more of a spectacle, rather than burn down to a stick and then fall," says Pelkey. The joints were attached to light ropes that were tugged to bring down the structure once the flames had worn it down to a certain point. Lucy also was outfitted with three joints on her "neck," "waist" and "legs" that would allow her to snap in half once the structure began to weaken. Pieces of Duraflame logs were glued to the discs to help coax the fire.

After the design work was completed, Lucy was pieced in backyard around town by 18 workers and volunteers and literally snapped together at the burn site on Third Street and Colorado Avenue the day before the burn.

But once the team got her standing, she still had plenty standing in her way. Primarily, the wind. After all, unlike her sister, which was designed to withstand gales up to 70 mph, Lucy was engineered to collapse.

"We had spent 12 hours setting her up on Thursday, and then that night the winds were like a hurricane," says Pelkey's wife Nikki Doran, a member of the Burning Art Council and a Burning Man Regional Contact who helped oversee the build. "We were terrified she was going to fall or be damaged and that we wouldn't have time to rebuild her."

Luckily, the team managed to secure the structure with ropes and metal guide beams that allowed Lucy to weather the storm. Still, Doran and the rest of the team couldn't be 100 percent sure the burn would happen until Metro and the Fire Department, who were onsite with wind-monitoring instruments and plenty of fire trucks, gave them the thumbs up at the last minute.

"We were all waiting with fingers crossed. We were so nervous right up until the last performance of the Burning Opera," Doran says.

But when Pelkey and a fellow builder ascended in a crane to pour light fuel and accelerant on the structure, the winds picked up again. Though Pilkey was wearing a protective silver suit, enough fuel was getting sprayed onto him and into the air that they were forced to stop, still half a gallon short of what they planned to use for the burn.

But in true showgirl fashion, the show went on. With winds still at safe levels, the fire was lit, and the burn went off without a hitch: The crowd audibly "ooh-ed" and "ahh-ed," the structure collapsed on cue, and the dazzling bonfire that remained was contained so quickly that, according to Pelkey, the Fire Department left an hour early.

Despite the tense buildup, Pelkey and Doran are thrilled with what they consider a "pretty much perfect" execution.

"I couldn't've asked for a smoother and better run," says Doran, adding that she hopes the burn will break new ground for other arts-related projects in the community. "Vegas is the town of spectacle, so I hope this opens the doors for other creative thinkers and lets them know that they can take their idea to fruition.

"Las Vegas has been really supportive of seeing interesting, different things happen. And if you can impress and bring something different to Vegas, I think that's pretty amazing."

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.

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