Hundreds of people witnessed the horrific moment when a man jumped into a large bonfire at the Element 11 festival in Utah, US. Courtesy FOX 13 News

A MAN, aged 30, has died after leaping into a massive ceremonial fire at an arts festival in Utah.

Christopher Wallace, of Salt Lake City, was dancing before throwing himself into the three-storey tall inferno at Element 11, Utah’s own version of the iconic Burning Man festival. Element 11 was held in Bonneville Seabase near Grantsville and went over several days. Buring the art is an integral part of the festival’s climax.

Wallace had told festivalgoers earlier in the day that he planned to jump into the fire.

“This is what he was going to do, and it’s what he did,” Grantsville City Police Lieutenant Steve Barrett told reporters.

“It took not even seconds. He was just through the barricades and into the fire.”

Lt Barrett said firefighters had estimated the temperature of the fire at 2000 degrees just before Wallace’s act.

The effigy, modelled on a character from Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book “Where The Wild Things Are,” had been burning for about 30 minutes and was fully engulfed when Wallace passed the safety perimeter 15 metres from the structure and jumped in, officials said.

Officials said there were between 25 and 40 volunteers forming a perimeter around the fire to prevent people from getting too close. Those nearby attempted to shout at Wallace and even chase him, but they were unable to prevent him from jumping.

“The people that form that perimeter, it’s not a hand-in-hand circle around: There is space between these people so it will definitely have an impact about how we treat that perimeter in the future for sure,” said Element 11 spokesman JP Bernier.

“But I’m not going to place any blame on our community members or our volunteers. Everybody was in the right place at the right time. This guy was really motivated.

“He was very fast; he was very motivated. It wasn’t an accident or any act of negligence on anybody’s part. He had a very deliberate objective to get past our volunteers, past our safety perimeter.”

Element 11 hosted more than 1200 attendees and is a precursor to the Burning Man festival, in Black Rock City, Nevada.

Wallace was not alone at the festival.

“He was camped here with people who did know him and loved him and welcomed him into their camp and into their group,” Bernier said.

Festivalgoer Doug Johnson told Deseret News the death was the first of its kind that he’s seen after attending the annual volunteer-run event many times.

“I was blown away,” Johnson said. “Fifteen years and I’ve never had anything like that happen, ever.”