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When people say "Die in a fire," it's not much of a "curse." It's often intended to show seething hate for the target, and if you don't think it through it certainly sounds quite venomous. However, as it turns out many of us hope to, or hope for loved relatives, to die "quietly in their sleep." I certainly would like to go from live to not-live with none of the traumatic and painful transitions involved with that process.
However, most people who die in fires don't die from burns nor do they feel pain. It seems that the fire first sucks the oxygen out of the room, and humans never really evolved oxygen depletion defense systems, so we remain blissfully unaware of the problem. Smoke inhalation and suffocation are more typically the causes of death "by fire," and these ways of dying are peaceful and painless. The fact your body might later be exposed to high temperatures is probably less important as you'd have expired before the flames actually reached your lifeless body. Rather than a curse, the reality is the revered peaceful death "in their sleep" wished for others may be synonymous with the literal result from those who "die in a fire."
I might as well hope I am lucky enough to die in a fire as I would be lucky enough to die in my sleep. I'm no Klingon.
I once heard a story about a person who had respiratory problems which resulted in her bedtime death - it seems her throat swelled up and prevented her from breathing while she slept. Her family found her dead in bed with deep gouges she made in her neck she made desperately trying to fight for a way to get air into her lungs. That sounds like a horrific way to die.
If you happen to be with someone whose neck swells up inside and prevents breathing and no medical professionals are available, here is an online instruction guide on how to perform an emergency tracheotomy. I saw something like this once in an episode of M*A*S*H.
http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/emergency.htm
My dad had one in the hospital - one presumes with anesthetic. They put tubes in him that easily snapped to other equipment like legos.
It wouldn't be much of a variation of the general wording to say "Die with fire" or "Die on fire," which seems to imply that the transition would again be traumatic. You could even argue the purifying nature of fire is sort of a "salt the earth where you once stood" issue. Still, I'm not convinced that you can adequately process nerve impulses of large portions of your body burning at once. More likely you'd go into shock and again succeed at death without pain. However, this would at least some initial sensation and likely knowledge of the condition which could be traumatic even if the actual pain signals processed by the brain didn't result in much direct pain, or pain for long before death. Still, this would be a far more effective "curse" than the ironic die in a fire phrase.
However, most people who die in fires don't die from burns nor do they feel pain. It seems that the fire first sucks the oxygen out of the room, and humans never really evolved oxygen depletion defense systems, so we remain blissfully unaware of the problem. Smoke inhalation and suffocation are more typically the causes of death "by fire," and these ways of dying are peaceful and painless. The fact your body might later be exposed to high temperatures is probably less important as you'd have expired before the flames actually reached your lifeless body. Rather than a curse, the reality is the revered peaceful death "in their sleep" wished for others may be synonymous with the literal result from those who "die in a fire."
I might as well hope I am lucky enough to die in a fire as I would be lucky enough to die in my sleep. I'm no Klingon.
I once heard a story about a person who had respiratory problems which resulted in her bedtime death - it seems her throat swelled up and prevented her from breathing while she slept. Her family found her dead in bed with deep gouges she made in her neck she made desperately trying to fight for a way to get air into her lungs. That sounds like a horrific way to die.
If you happen to be with someone whose neck swells up inside and prevents breathing and no medical professionals are available, here is an online instruction guide on how to perform an emergency tracheotomy. I saw something like this once in an episode of M*A*S*H.
http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/emergency.htm
My dad had one in the hospital - one presumes with anesthetic. They put tubes in him that easily snapped to other equipment like legos.
It wouldn't be much of a variation of the general wording to say "Die with fire" or "Die on fire," which seems to imply that the transition would again be traumatic. You could even argue the purifying nature of fire is sort of a "salt the earth where you once stood" issue. Still, I'm not convinced that you can adequately process nerve impulses of large portions of your body burning at once. More likely you'd go into shock and again succeed at death without pain. However, this would at least some initial sensation and likely knowledge of the condition which could be traumatic even if the actual pain signals processed by the brain didn't result in much direct pain, or pain for long before death. Still, this would be a far more effective "curse" than the ironic die in a fire phrase.
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You know, you are just not helping with today...
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I've often heard the epithet used as "die BY fire," and in the nineteenth century, in America, it carried connotations of public burnings and lynchings. Since most "witch burnings" in the colonies were actually hangings and the stray "pressing," our use of burning has now-forgotten (by many) racial overtones.
So, no, I don't really accept your definition of it as an ironic curse. But it does beat you moaning about squats...maybe if you tried those over a little bonfire?
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I like your historical perspective on the term - I'm thinking the people I've heard it are repeating it as a vague concept without context though. I hadn't thought of the possible racial overtone - neat! "Die in a fire!" "Racist!"
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