14 DAY TRIAL // The D.C. Metropolitan Police responded to a call about a man setting himself on fire at The National Mall.
According to the Hollywood Gossip, crews arrived to see a burning man on Friday, October 4, at 4:30 p.m. Many people were passing by the area located near the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
Joggers and passers-by saw him get engulfed in flames and called 911. Some of them even offered assistance.
“Just witnessed the craziest thing ever... a man set himself on fire and danced down the Mall. #horrifying,” one resident tweeted.
“I was crossing the street and didn't see him pour the gas or light the match, but saw the flames move up from the middle of his body to his arms. [...] He didn't make any noise that I heard,” witness Vanessa Sink describes.
The man, whose name has not been provided, has been airlifted to a local hospital, where he is currently in critical condition, having suffered life-threatening injuries.
D.C. police spokeswoman Saray Leon describes that the man was found “conscious and breathing” by firefighters.
Fire Department spokesman Timothy J. Wilson tells the Washington Post that they have no information on why or how he started the fire.
“No indication on our end of what caused the fire. [...] So how it started, don’t know,” Wilson states.
Jogger Nicole Didyk mentions seeing him on fire in the middle of the Mall at 7th Street and Jefferson Drive.
She recalls five men using their T-shirts to put out the fire. When they contained the flames, he tumbled over with a white substance all over his arms. She noted that he was badly burnt.
Witness Meghan Van Heertum was passing by when she noticed the strong firefighter and law enforcement response. She remembered that the air “smelled strongly of burning flesh.”