High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Tolly Burkan, also known as Bruce Burkan, (born May 17, 1948 in New York City) is a firewalking spokesman. He is the founder of the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education in Twain Harte, California and claims there are over three million firewalkers globally, including 3,000 instructors on six continents. Since the 1980s he has received widespread media attention, and has been called the "father of the global firewalking movement".