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Man Sets Himself On Fire In Front Of City Hall

city hall


(Jim Woods)  There is a charred spot on the City Hall patio Downtown, near the Christopher Columbus statue, where a 58-year-old man set himself on fire Monday morning.

And there is an indelible mark on the memories of those who witnessed it.

Several 911 calls were fielded by operators shortly after 11 a.m.

A fire dispatcher initially replied “What?!” after hearing the report of a man on fire.

A man, obviously distressed with what he was seeing, narrated the scene to dispatchers for more than four minutes, yelling at one point, “He’s still on fire!” and “Anybody got any water?”

The voice of another caller, a woman, was shaky when she called from City Hall to say, “Someone has set himself on fire and is rolling around on the ground.”

Late Monday night, the man remained in critical condition at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University. Columbus police have not released his name, saying they are still trying to reach his family.

Detectives said the man likely was trying to commit suicide. An unmarked bottle of clear liquid that he might have poured on himself was found near the fire scene.

Three workers doing lawn maintenance were the first to see the man burning on the southwest side of City Hall on W. Broad Street and ran to help him, said Terri Leist, a spokeswoman for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department.

The man fell on the concrete, stood up and stumbled to a grassy area, Leist said. One employee ran for a fire extinguisher from a nearby truck.

Using that, they almost doused the flames, but the supervisor also removed his shirt to smother the rest of the fire, Leist said.

One man told dispatchers said there were a number of people who ran out of City Hall with fire extinguishers after they realized what was happening.

Gene Rose and Andrew Birrell work at the Jimmy John’s restaurant on S. Front Street and were out on the sidewalk, getting ready for the lunchtime rush, when they saw smoke coming from City Hall.

When Birrell called 911, he told an operator he thought that somebody had set fire to papers in front of the building.

But when the two got closer, they realized that a man was on fire.

None of the 911 callers reported seeing the man catch himself on fire. Columbus police plan to review security-camera video from the area.