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BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada — A Burning Man emergency crew responded at around 6:20 p.m. Tuesday night to extract an injured man from a 55-foot-tall “Nest Tower” structure at the Square One camp. According to bystanders who said they witnessed the accident, the man fell two levels from near the top of the 10-level structure and landed on a metal crossbar, appearing to hit his head, ribs and hip. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The rescue proved complicated. Some emergency responders climbed the tower to stabilize the man, while others cleared the way for a construction vehicle to enter the camp and raise an aerial platform. The man was loaded onto the platform, lowered to the ground and then transferred to a gurney. As medical staff took his vitals, they asked his age, and he replied “30.” The crew then wheeled the man to an ambulance, with one medic announcing that the man would be transferred to Rampart, the event’s mobile hospital. The injured man and about half the rescue crew were dressed in tutus because, at Burning Man, a 70,000-person bacchanal in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, the third day of the event is always “Tutu Tuesday.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad After the crew departed, members of camp Square One lingered and somberly discussed the incident. Camp leaders Lee and Gaby Merschon told SFGATE that they have erected “Nest Tower” at their Burning Man camp since 2021, making it taller each time, and that this was the first injury on the structure. “We did what we could to make it as safe as possible, but you know, s—t happens,” Lee Merschon said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad BECOME A FRIEND. GET OUR AD-FREE APP. Every year, hundreds of Burners are injured at the event and require on-site medical care or a medical evacuation, and a fraction of those incidents involve falls from tall art pieces and other structures. In 2024, Burner Rachael Gingery took about a 20-foot fall from a popular art piece resembling a sinking ship, fracturing her spine and a rib and puncturing a lung. Eventually, she made a full recovery and went back to Burning Man. “If you choose to engage in dangerous behavior out there, there are real consequences for those choices, and those consequences fall squarely on your own shoulders,” Gingery told SFGATE last year. “It’s not Disneyland.” The Burning Man Project, the nonprofit organization that throws the event, did not respond to a request for comment before the time of publication. Advertisement Article continues below this ad News | Crime | Tahoe | News Read our stories ad-free on the new SFGATE app.