A man set himself on fire Wednesday on the Ellipse park in downtown Washington, D.C., across from the White House, the Secret Service said.
At approximately 12:20 p.m. a man lit himself on fire on the Ellipse near 15th and Constitution Ave., Secret Service personnel are on scene assisting @NatlParkService and @usparkpolicepio in rendering first aid.
— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) May 29, 2019
The unidentified man stood in front of sightseers on the Ellipse, a 52-acre park area that lies south of the White House and north of the National Mall. The fire occurred just north of the Washington Monument.
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Secret Service spokesman Jeffrey Adams said in a statement that the agency’s Uniformed Division Officers “responded in seconds” after the “male individual lit himself on fire.” Officers then began administering first aid to the man.
“The individual is being transported to a local hospital,” Adams said.
The Blast reports that video footage of the incident shows the man wandering the park slowly and calmly before finally confronted by someone with a fire extinguisher.
“I can confirm that we’ve transported one patient with burns from the Ellipse and we’re now on the scene assisting law enforcement,” a spokesman for the Washington Fire Department told CNBC, referring to Park Police and U.S. Secret Service officers.
The man’s condition is unclear at this time.
A 17-year-old girl from Alexandria, Virginia, who was sight-seeing with a cousin visiting from Bolivia, saw part of the incident and captured it on video. She sent it to her father who posted it on Twitter.
The video shows smoke billowing from the lawn near a guard shack and some flames visible above parked cars.
The girl’s father, Krisjan Berzins, said in an interview that his daughter saw “Secret Service agents running toward him trying to extinguish the fire.”
