Do You Remember Michael Jackson’s Hair Catching On Fire?

Safeguards for Commercials

On January 27, 1984, during the sixth take of the filming of a Pepsi commercial, pyrotechnics (fireworks) went off too early and caught Michael Jackson’s hair on fire.

Watch the video below and see what you think about the causes of the fire and injuries…

The only Safeguard seemed to be distance (the fireworks weren’t supposed to be set off until he went down the stairs). I would guess these fireworks were manually initiated, and the operator just made a timing error.

A real SnapCharT® Diagram of the accident would certainly be interesting.

Note that they didn’t even have the Safeguard of nearby firefighting equipment. They put out the remaining fire (which burned for quite a while) with their hands!

Makes you wonder about the pre-filming safety analysis that was (or was not) done and the “human factors” of the timing of the fireworks.

Many say that the pain from the burns and painkillers that Michael took after the accident started the troubles with drugs that haunted him for the remainder of his career. Watch this video…

Lesson Learned

Even stars need to apply the proven lessons of how to keep people safe on the job. A fairly simple Safeguards Analysis could have identified problems before the accident and allowed either additional Safeguards or improved Safeguards to keep “the King of Pop” safe.

Learn More About SnapCharT® Diagrams and Safeguard Analysis

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