PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — Police in Rhode Island responding to reports of a man who had lit himself on fire later found a nearby abandoned industrial building on fire.
Pawtucket police found the man and a female acquaintance just before midnight Thursday.
Officers discovered that a fire was spreading in the old Roberts Chemical building a short time later.
Part of the building collapsed and Michael Sweeney, chief of the state fire marshal’s investigation unit, tells WPRI-TV the structural integrity of the rest of the building is compromised and it will likely need to be torn down.
Crews from Pawtucket, Central Falls, North Providence and Lincoln responded to the scene.
The man suffered serious but non-life threatening burns. The woman suffered smoke inhalation. Both were arrested on outstanding warrants.
The fire’s cause remains under investigation.
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