More than 30 people burned in Tony Robbins’ hot-coals walk

Five people were taken to hospital on Thursday night, while several others were treated at the scene for burns to their feet and lower extremities, Dallas fire officials said. About 30-40 people received on-site burn treatment, while only five elected to go to the hospital, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Fire officials used a city bus to hold numerous injured people; others were carried to ambulances or back inside the convention center to be evaluated.

The “Firewalk” exercise is the first event in Robbins’ weekend seminar, “Unleash the Power Within”, which his website says tries to help people “break through any limit and create the quality of life you desire”. It was unclear how many participated in the coal walk. Once the event started getting headlines for the number of people who were supposedly injured, Robbins International issued a statement attempting to handwave away the large number of injuries.

One fire walk participant in Dallas, Jacqueline Luzenberg, has done the stunt many times before and is a fierce advocate.

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins attends Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals on June 16 in Cleveland, Ohio. He realized halfway through his walk over the coals that he’d suffered burns. “Storm across a hot bed of coals”, the web site encourages. Paramedics treated dozens of people from the sold-out program for burn injuries to their feet and legs.

Evans, with Dallas Fire-Rescue, said organizers had the necessary permits for the burning coals.

They were apparently dozens out of thousands of people who had participated.

Unfortunately, not everyone managed to endure the pain from the hot coals. “I’ve been doing events with Tony for 23 years, and while it may not look like that way, this was a successful event”, the head trainer tells CBS DFW.