I have a horror of fire, steam, smoke, and such-like things. The idea of deliberately setting a fire in a building I’m in, and then just sitting there and waiting for the smoke or flames to end it…
The saddest thing is not the story, nor how the neighbor kids put themselves at risk to try save the woman. But the comment from one of the dead woman’s relatives about how they’d tried to get her some help for her depression.
The other day, there was a huge, scary conflagation a block away from where I babysit a 3-year-old girl 3 days a week. 100 people lost their homes, several people went to the hospital, one person died. But wait! Rumor has it that person was already dead when the fire started. It was started to cover up the murder. <shudder>
Remember the people in the World Trade Towers on 9/11 that instead of being burned alive chose to jump. That shows how bad being burned alive really is.
People do get so despondent that they choose this method as a way of expressing their profound depression, but once the match is lit, I imagine they get more than they bargained for. (Unless they’re Buddhist monks, conditioned by years of meditation to endure anything) Just my WAG, but I doubt it’s used as a method of suicide by people depressed at going through life as surviors of severe burns.
OTOH, since insurance companies won’t pay benefits to suicide survivors, the depressed person might use arson both as a method and a cover; and, wary of CSI-style analysis, won’t take a bunch of pills or shoot themselves painlessly after setting the fire.
Am I missing something with the OP’s link? It sends me to a World Famous Photo site, showing a picture of a young woman and child falling out of an apartment window of a building that is on fire. I thought maybe the building was on fire because of the suicide mentioned in this thread, but couldn’t find anything in the link to verify.
No cites, but didn’t I read somewhere (maybe even on SDMB?) that insurance companies do pay benefits as a result of suicide provided the policy has been in place for x (2?) years?
Yeah, that’s what I get too. And that wasn’t suicide, that was a tragic accident where the building was on fire and the fire escapre gave way which led to stiffer regulations for fire escape construction. The woman died but the child lived.
Dunno. A girl I went to high school with killed herself at age 21 by sitting in her car, dousing the interior with gasoline, and lighting a match. I can’t imagine what mental state she must have been in.
I was one of the “whipping kids” in my class, and she was friends with the clique who enjoyed tormenting me, but she was always nice to me.
Yep, Unca Cecil did this, just a couple of months ago. From the referenced link: The underlying assumption here — that life insurance providers won’t pay out in cases of suicide — isn’t accurate, or at least isn’t accurate anymore.
And
*After much litigation, the suicide exclusion has now been limited in most cases to two years, research having indicated that such a period is long enough to weed out those who buy life insurance with the specific intention of killing themselves thereafter.
So: if someone does himself in more than two years after his life policy took effect, the insurer typically will pay. If the death takes place within two years of the start date, though, and the insurance company can prove it’s suicide, not an accident — it’s their exclusion, so the burden’s on them — they’ll usually return any premiums that were paid, but that’s it.*
A guy I went to highschool with in the mid 80’s was dumped by his girlfriend. We didn’t see him for weeks after that, his parents could not get him out of his room etc…etc… One day he showed up on his ex-girlfriends back porch and dowsed himself in Gas and lit himself on fire infront of GF’s family. Very sad state of affairs because he didn’t die immediatly…
My second (crazy) husband’s mother went to a city park poured gasoline over her head and set herself on fire. That probably explains his craziness to some extent.
I worked in a few burn ICUs over the years. Surprisingly, self immolation isn’t that rare.
I worked on one young woman who, after setting herself on fire, tried to jump out of rescue helicopter.
When my nephew committed suicide, his insurance policies paid since they had been in effect for a number of years. My niece-in-law would still rather have him than the money.
Doesn’t anyone remember those monks protesting the war in Viet Nam?
I just read this morning about a women who waded into a river with her daughter to drown her and her child.
I have a friend who self-immolated on the floor in his parent’s living room. Right in front of them. Just poured gas over himself and struck a match. He was in his late 30s or so, I believe.
I have a relative who committed suicide this way. Our best guess is that they were trying to hide a medical condition from their parents. Freestanding structure, by the way, no one else placed at (immediate) risk.
