Man sets himself on fire on the National Mall

[Bosonic]

Source: WTOP

WASHINGTON - A man who poured a can of gasoline on his head and set himself on fire on the National Mall in the nation's capital has been airlifted to the hospital, police and fire officials said Friday afternoon.

The man, whose name was not immediately known, suffered life-threatening injuries, said D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson.

He was standing by himself at Seventh Street and Madison Drive, in the center portion of the Mall, when he emptied the contents of a red gas can on himself and set himself on fire moments later, said Katy Scheflen, who witnessed it as she walked through the Mall.

She said passing joggers took off their shirts in an effort to help douse the flames, and the man was clearly alive as the flames spread. A police department spokesman said he was conscious and breathing at the scene.

Read more: http://www.wtop.com/109/3472732/Police-respond-to-man-reportedly-on-fire-on-National-Mall

[Xipe Totec]

8. Done. nt

[murielm99]

11. I am going to follow your lead and self-delete. n/t

[truebluegreen]

5. That was disgusting. You should self-delete.

[Xipe Totec]

9. Done. nt

[truebluegreen]

12. Thanks.

[Wernothelpless]

3. Burning for the Buddha

Graham Nash announces a new song : "We would like to sing another new song for you. This to honor the 128 Tibet monks who have burned themselves to dead because of the conflict between the Tibet and the Chinese government. With James, myself and my friend Marcus we wrote this song called "Burning for the Buddha"

[Rebellious Republican]

15. I remeber this. Thank you.

[AngryOldDem]

24. That's very apt.

My first thought was the Buddhist monks who did this to protest Vietnam.

[LiberalEsto]

4. What a horrible thing. It must be excruciating

I could never understand why people feel compelled to kill themselves by immolating themselves.

Hoping he survives and heals well.

[tofuandbeer]

7. I was thinking the same thing.

[Tx4obama]

6. An additional link

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2013/10/04/police-responding-to-report-of-man-on-fire-on-national-mall/

[Tx4obama]

10. ... " Just witnessed the craziest thing ever... a man set himself on fire and danced down the Mall."

-snip-

Vanessa Sink @LiveMusicGirl

Just witnessed the craziest thing ever... a man set himself on fire and danced down the Mall. #horrifying

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/man-sets-self-on-fire-national-mall_n_4046249.html

[Rebellious Republican]

13. Two days in a row, desperate people are committing desperate acts in DC!

Wonder if our leaders are taking note, silly me, to think that they associate their actions with these events.

[AngryOldDem]

22. I'm willing to cede mental illness in the case of the woman.

But this...I don't know. The longer this bullshit goes on, the more I sense the climate of the nation changing. And not for the better.

To quote Stephen Stills: "Somethin's happenin' here...what it is ain't exactly clear."

[840high]

37. People are

discouraged, broke. They don't see better days ahead.

[caseymoz]

40. Shut down raises the general stress level

And it's a blind fear. Some people who seem apolitical will crack.

[AngryOldDem]

50. That's why I'm particularly concerned about food banks.

Report I heard said that they will soon be empty. I used to volunteer at a food bank that got roughly half of its inventory from the USDA. The rest came from donations. Despite being relatively well stocked, there were some weeks when we literally ran out of food and had to resort to handing out condiment packs and ramen noodles to people who were elderly, or who had families to feed (most often elderly who were taking care of grandchildren). I felt lower than a snake's belly giving people those things, but that was all we had.

While churches and community groups were awesome with their donations, some weeks, it was just not enough. Now, times are even harsher and people who readily donated then may not be able to now.

And when people begin to grow hungry...

[onenote]

25. Silly you to associate them without any evidence

Why not wait to find out more about these incidents before declaring you've got it figured out.

[Rebellious Republican]

45. So what part of my statement are you disputing?

Two days in a row, statement of fact, were there two incidents in as many days? Did they occur in DC or else where? Desperate people are committing desperate acts, were these acts normal? I do not understand your reply, I have not made any associations, whatever that means. What have I got figured out?

[onenote]

46. I'm disputing the part of your statement

that suggests that "our leaders" should "associate their actions with these events."

Why should they when there is zero evidence, at this point, that these events are associated with any actions taken, or not taken, by "our leaders" (unless of course you believe that President Obama was in fact stalking Ms. Carey).

Maybe it will turn out that the guy who set himself on fire did so as a protest against something that the government has done or not done. But as I suggested, it might be better to wait to find out than to assume you know the reason for either of these actions.

[Squinch]

14. What the hell is going on?

[Cryptoad]

20. Tea , any one???????? nt

[Squinch]

23. This is horrible. People are going crazy.

[onenote]

26. More likely, people were already disturbed

[Squinch]

27. Yes, i agree, but they are going off like a string of firecrackers.

[onenote]

31. I doubt there's a measurable uptick in disturbed behavior

Yes there have been 3 high profile incidents, but there doesn't appear to be any reason to link them to each other let alone to anything else. And every day there probably is someone who loses control. These three incidents manifested themselves in more public ways than most, but that doesn't mean there is a "string of firecrackers" going off.

[Squinch]

35. That's nice, dear.

[Cryptoad]

29. Maybe its some kinda new Brain-rot disease?

It sure is spreading!

[rug]

16. DC is going to leave Florida in the dust.

[theHandpuppet]

30. Thing is, it's usually people from outside the district...

...who drive to D.C. to make their deadly statements.

[Tx4obama]

17. Witness: Man apparently sets himself on fire on National Mall

Witness: Man apparently sets himself on fire on National Mall

Washington (CNN) -- Law enforcement and medical personnel rushed to Washington's National Mall on Friday afternoon to assist a man who reportedly set himself on fire.

Officer Hugh Carew, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, said the initial report was the man was conscious and breathing. Carew could not confirm how the fire had started.

Adam Stifel saw part of the incident as he was running.

"I saw a man sitting in flames," Stifel told CNN. "He had already doused himself in gasoline, I believe."

Stifel said five or six people used their shirts to pat out the fire. He said he saw a red gasoline canister near the man.

The incident occurred near the National Air and Space Museum. The man was airlifted out to receive medical care.

-snip-

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/04/us/man-on-fire-national-mall-washington/index.html

[StrictlyRockers]

18. This is absolutely horrific.

What the hell is happening over there? Is anyone taking notice that the crazy is running rampant?

[mindwalker_i]

19. There seems to be an odd similarity between this and what Republicans are doing

It's not hard to think that shutting down the government would hurts Republicans, yet they did it anyway. At first, it was because they wanted to kill the ACA, but now it's not so obvious.

If, however, Republicans from congress start lighting themselves on fire, I'm roasting a hot dog over them.

[tavernier]

21. DO NOT DRINK THE WATER IN D.C.!!!

[meadowlark5]

28. What the hell is going on?!

What's next WWZ and people will start turning into zombies? I hope not, the CDC is furloughed so no one could figure out why or how to stop it.

[onenote]

33. Sky falling much?

A mentally disturbed woman is shot after altercations with the Secret Service and Capitol Hill police. A person about whom we know absolutely nothing apparently sets himself on fire.

CDC? Nice hyperbole.

[meadowlark5]

34. Sky's not falling for me

Being facetious. But apparently it feels like it is for some of these desperate people.

[magical thyme]

49. apparently the sky is falling for some people.

just because you don't happen to be one of them doesn't mean it isn't falling on a lot of people right now.

You, on the other hand, seem to have your own problem with people picking up on what appears to be a pattern. That seems to bother you a lot; why else your need to go through this thread mocking whoever dares to speculate?

[onenote]

53. I don't have trouble with people picking up on a pattern

I have trouble with people imagining a pattern from what events that haven't been established as having any connection with one another.

[magical thyme]

54. there is a saying in the military:

If something happens one time it's happenstance;
Two times is coincidence;
Three times is enemy action.

This is the 3rd time somebody has done something crazy suicidal-murderous at the capitol in a pretty short time frame -- a matter of weeks. I suspect that is what people are picking up on as showing the start of a pattern.

[zeemike]

32. The origins of this go back to 1963

And the Viet Nam war...

[Maraya1969]

38. That's what I was thinking - especially since he was sitting down.

[valerief]

41. I thought of that, too. Found a big list of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations

[zeemike]

43. Wow...I remember some of them

But I had no idea there were so many...

[valerief]

44. So many in China. nt

[hedgehog]

36. I think this is a combination of stimulus and underlying mental illness-

as another example - the Golden Gate Bridge attracts a large number of people attempting suicide. How many would make the attempt without the stimulus the bridge and its history provides? Here we have a combination of extreme political rhetoric and prior examples serving as a stimulus.

[Pterodactyl]

47. Yeah. Reid should tone down the rhetoric so this does not happen again.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Keep in mind certain predictions....

Some people out there really believe it's either Republicans or the end of the world.

[valerief]

42. Some people eat their own shit. It's not most of us. nt

[Bosonic]

51. Man who set himself on fire in US capital dies

Washington (AFP) - A man who set himself on fire on the National Mall in the US capital has died, police said Saturday.

The victim, who suffered from "significant burns throughout his body" died before 9 pm (0100 GMT) Friday, Washington Metropolitan Police spokesman Araz Alali told AFP.

Authorities have yet to identify the individual due to the severity of his burns and an investigation is ongoing, Alali said.

He was unable to comment on reports that the individual had doused himself in gasoline.

http://news.yahoo.com/man-set-himself-fire-us-capital-dies-182859055.html

[Jefferson23]

52. Horrifiic, they don't even know his name yet. RIP n/t