UCSD Burn Victim in Critical Condition

A 34-year-old Encinitas man was in critical condition at UC San Diego Medical Center late Sunday night after suffering burns over 90% of his body on a balcony of UC San Diego’s Central Library.

UCSD Police Chief John Anderson said the victim, whose name was withheld pending notification of his family, apparently set himself on fire deliberately.

Anderson said a one-gallon can of fluid for a camp stove and a backpack were found by police on the southern edge of the large cement balcony, which overlooks the main entrance to the eight-story library.

Campus police were summoned to the scene at 7:15 p.m. after a student passing near the balcony saw flames. Officers responding to the call found a group of students attempting to smother the fire, which had enveloped the man’s clothes, with wet T-shirts, Anderson said. Within minutes, an officer put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher.

As a group of 30 students looked on, the victim was then taken by ambulance to a Life Flight helicopter that landed on a nearby playing field. He was then flown to the burn unit at UCSD Medical Center, where spokeswoman Pat JaCoby said he was listed in “very critical condition.”

According to witnesses interviewed by campus police, the victim’s girlfriend was waiting in a car in the library parking lot at the time of the fire. Her name was not released and Anderson said she was still being questioned late Sunday night.

In the late 1960s, a UCSD student named George Winne died after he had set himself afire on a central campus plaza. University officials said that Winne, who was honored several years ago by the erection of a campus memorial, burned himself to death in protest of the Vietnam War.