As of this morning, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen confirmed that man had died from his injuries.
Festival organisers issued a statement through its website to say that at "approximately 10.30pm Saturday evening, a male participant at the annual Burning Man event in Northern Nevada broke through a safety perimeter and into a fire. Black Rock City fire personnel rescued him from the fire.
"The individual was treated on scene, transported to the on-site medical facility and airlifted to a burn center".
During the fiery destruction of the 50-foot-tall man, thousands of participants danced and partied at the annual event, which is held two hours north of Reno on an ancient dry lake bed.
Saturday (local time) marked the height of the art and music festival celebration, where Burners had gathered to witness the lighting of the symbolic ritual burning of the huge wooden effigy.
Prior to the burn, The Man towered over the temporary city for a week. The event on Saturday night is traditionally rowdy while the event Sunday night is the subdued burning of the Temple.
The Man burns on the Black Rock Desert at Burning Man near Gerlach, Nevada. Photo / AP
The Temple is another wooden structure that has been stuffed with notes, memories and remembrances from festival goers throughout the week. It will also be burned Sunday evening.
This year's festival theme is Radical Ritual, with organisers inviting participants to celebrate "the ambiguous ground that lies between reverence and ridicule, faith and belief, the absurd and the stunningly sublime," according to the official Burning Man website.
Dozens of art installations were constructed before the end of the weekend, some made from wire, others as patterns on the ground and some as immersive experiences.
Stunning photographs show the larger-than-life art installations that are the focal points of this year's festival theme of Radical Ritual, which is to honor rituals that humankind has made, including the festival.
The Man burns on the Black Rock Desert at Burning Man near Gerlach, Nevada. Photo / AP
The event's website says: "Burning Man is permeated with rituals. These rites speak of soulful need; the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence.
"Throughout all ages temples have been built in order to induce these feelings."
Every year, several temples are built according to a theme and on the last day, they are burned down in a ritualistic ceremony.
The festival, which began in 1986 as a bonfire, has erected a temple commemorating the Golden Spike and participants are invited to visit the shrine and make offerings that embody what Burning Man's culture means to them.
A giant, and loud, fireball erupts from a canon loaded with gas, and ignited by propane, creating a black smoke ring that floats above the playa at Burning Man. Photo / Getty Images
The premise of the Burning Man festival is that almost everything is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience.
Since money is practically outlawed on the site, 'Burners' are urged to barter for commodities and in the past fans have taken to social media to swap items such as crystals for festival tickets.
The remote week-long rave is often described as "where Mad Max meets Woodstock".
Temperatures in the desert have exceeded 100 degrees at times, while punishing dust storms covered most of the desert gala in sand earlier in the week.
The art and music festival runs over nine days until September 4 in the Black Rock Desert, which was transformed into a "metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance".
