Man found on fire dies
As published on page one of the June 16, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
A man who was found dead after he was seen ablaze outside the Cheshire County Court House in Keene has not yet been identified, police said.
Police and fire officials responded to a report of a person on fire at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The man was pronounced dead by the N.H. Medical Examiner's Office at the scene, according to a Keene police news release.
Police do not suspect foul play, Keene police Lt. James F. McLaughlin said this morning.
The medical examiner's office will identify the body, either through facial recognition, fingerprints or dental records, McLaughlin said. He added police "have an idea" of who the man is but are waiting for the medical examiner's report to confirm.
The Sentinel this morning received by mail a letter that claims to be written by the man who died in Wednesday's incident. Editors are looking into the veracity of the letter.
Witness Emma Webber was in the parking lot across from the entrance to the courthouse when she saw the man already on fire. She ran toward him and called 911 on her cellphone, she said shortly after the incident. Webber was tearful and clearly shaken.
"By the time the police got here I'm pretty sure he was dead," she said.
Crystal Bechard, who works in a nearby store, said a woman came into the store looking for help to try to put out the fire, but by the time they returned to the scene with water jugs the fire trucks had arrived.
"I saw so much smoke I thought maybe the building had been on fire," she said this morning.
The fire was extinguished by police shortly after 5:30, but smoke was still rising from the strip of grass near the entrance along the brick face of the courthouse.
Keene fire and police officers held pieces of cloth that looked like bed sheets up around the area to block the view. The sheets were later attached to poles to form a makeshift screen.
Multiple fire trucks and police vehicles responded to the incident, as well as N.H. State Police and Cheshire County Sheriff Richard A. Foote.
Police interviewed several witness on the scene.
People were heading home at the end of the work day, and police allowed them access to cars parked within the police tape perimeter, which extended along Winter Street from Court Street to near the Keene Public Library. The road was closed to traffic.
This morning, maintenance workers at the courthouse hosed down scorch marks on the driveway.
Court operations Wednesday and today were not affected.
Follow updates on this story as they become available at sentinelsource.com.
Sentinel staff writer Abby Spegman contributed to this report.
tagged with: Keene N.H., self-immolation, suicide, Thomas Ball
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