Witnesses, Police Say Man Set Self On Fire, Jumped From Bridge

A man set fire to himself and jumped from a foot bridge crossing Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia during rush hour Thursday, according to witnesses and police. Two bus drivers said they used a fire extinguisher to douse flames engulfing the man.

Howard County Police said the man was flown to the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center and was in critical condition.

The man lit his clothes on fire and jumped off the foot bridge between the Columbia Mall and Lake Kittamaqundi that passes over Little Patuxent Parkway, witnesses said.

Police said no drivers struck the man and no one else was injured in the incident that occurred just after 5 p.m. Police closed the road for an hour. They said they were investigating the incident as an apparent suicide attempt.

Jeff Bath, a Howard Transit bus driver who was being trained on a new bus route in Columbia, said that as his colleague, Randolph Scott, was driving along Little Patuxent Parkway when the two saw the man run and jump off the bridge.

“When I was driving, I saw the bridge engulfed in flames,” Scott said. “Then we saw someone fall from the bridge.” 

The men said they stopped the bus, grabbed a fire extinguisher from inside the vehicle and Bath used it to stop the man from burning.

 “He’s a person, just a person, just like the rest of us,” Bath said.

Scott said the man was conscious, but he couldn’t talk.

 “I tried to keep him down,” Scott said. “He tried to get up. I told him to keep calm.”

 Yolanda Barfield, a passenger on the bus, said as the bus was going under the bridge, the bus driver stopped and said he saw a man on fire.

 “He ran over and discovered a human body on fire,” she confirmed.

 Bystanders congregated outside the American City Building late in the day as police and fire officials responded to the scene.

 “He must have been so desperate,” said Barbara Hastings of Columbia. “Maybe something happened today.”