25 Employees Suffered Feet Burns After Unusual Team-Building Event

A team-building exercise performed by a company in Switzerland went terribly wrong after 25 employees suffered burns after walking across hot coals.

The incident took place Tuesday night around Lake Zurich in the Au Peninsula. After multiple people were burned, 10 ambulances arrived at the scene to give treatment and 13 people were taken to the hospital to be treated for severe injuries.

What caused the terrible injuries was the team-building exercise of fire walking. The group of employees walked over a bed of hot coals that was several meters long. The walkers reported feeling burning pain shortly after the exercise.

As soon as I heard this I immediately thought of this scene from the office.

There were 150 employees in attendance of the team building event hosted by the marketing company Goldbach. According to Bloomberg, Goldbach Group AG offers advertising services. The Company designs media campaigns using online and offline media.

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A police statement read, "Based on the report received, the ambulance service deployed a large contingent. 25 people received medical treatment on the spot, 13 of whom had to be hospitalized with serious injuries."

Going through the investigation, it is uncertain if there was an issue with the set-up of the coals or the way the participants walked over them that contributed to their burns.

A spokesperson for the company insisted that “no one was forced” to walk over the scorching embers.

Firewalking is the act of walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers or stones. Records of firewalking date back to 1200 BC, when the first recorded firewalk took place in India during the Iron Age.

Read More Here: Indiatimes