One of the important things to remember, in a helicopter rescue, is NEVER touch the basket/cable before it has made contact with the ground. That huge spinning rotor on top of the helicopter collects an incredible static electric charge, almost like a Van de Graff generator, or a Wimshurst machine. Touching the basket/cable before it's had a chance to contact the ground and discharge the built-up static will knock you on your butt, at a minimum, and possibly trigger a cardiac event. I've taken several helicopter rescue courses, and that's one of the points they emphasize. Also, NEVER walk behind a helicopter. That spinning tail rotor appears to be invisible, and even the barest contact with it will decapitate you. So, always approach a helicopter from the front. You typically don't have to worry, too much, about the main rotor blades, unless the helicopter has landed on a slope. But, helicopter pilots don't like to do that. Also, when directing a helicopter to land, make sure you point out any aerial wires. Those things are lethal to a helicopter, and can be quite difficult to see from the air. If landing at night, use vehicles parked at the edges of the landing zone, and cross the headlight beams, to indicate where the helicopter can land. There are a lot of other tips and techniques, but those are the main ones. Remember that you, almost certainly, won't have radio communications with a rescue helicopter, given that the frequencies they use are totally different than what ground based rescuers use, and getting another radio installed in a helicopter takes a major action of the FAA, so that's probably not going to happen. As a result, you'll most likely be using hand signals. Learn the one for a wave-off, if there appears to be danger to the helicopter, and remember that the pilot probably can't see you in the dark, unless you illuminate yourself. Over the last 4.5 decades, I've participated in a couple of helicopter rescues. Most were routine, and had a good outcome. One, in particular, did not have a good outcome, through no fault of the helicopter rescue team (e.g., the patient was already DOA before they loaded her into the helicopter, but they had to try.).

Interesting. Fire is, mainly, an oxidation/reduction reaction, involving the exchange of electrons. Meanwhile, plasma is free nuclei and electrons. So, something is having to provide the extra boost to get those electrons into a free state. But, it's certainly possible for that to happen.

Strange.

Might be interesting to know the permittivity and premeability of that material under those conditions. Somewhat strangely (or not), the speed of light, c, is related to the permittivity and premeability of the material it's traveling through, c=1/(SQRT(permittivity*premeability)). Thus, for free space, where: permittivity=8.854187812813E-12 premeability=1.256637061E-6 c=1/SQRT(permittivity*premeability)= 1/SQRT(8.854187812813E-12*1.256637061E-6)= 1/SQRT(1.11265005E-17)= 299792458 which is about as close as you can get to the generally accepted value of c, within experimental error. For that matter, it may be interesting to understand whether that material is isotropic and homogeneous or not, and to discover whether there's any effect of externally applied electric or magnetic fields.