Police and other emergency workers raced Friday to answer reports of a man on fire at the National Mall near the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, a D.C. Metropolitan Police spokeswoman told Yahoo News.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing flames engulfing the unidentified man near the storied tourist attraction before passersby and joggers scrambled to smother the blaze with their shirts. A helicopter landed on the Mall and he was taken to an area hospital.
Police received a call at 4:24 p.m., and emergency personnel were dispatched to a man who had been on fire but was conscious and breathing, Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Saray Leon said. A medical helicopter arrived and evacuated the man a short time later. Whether the man set himself on fire or was attacked was unknown, though one eyewitness told CNN he saw a gasoline can next to the man.
