Disturbing Video: Man On Fire Walks Down Bed-Stuy Street

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A disturbing video making the rounds on social media this week shows an unidentified man fully engulfed in flames on Halsey Street between Tompkins and Throop avenues in Bed-Stuy.

"This guy's on fire. What the heck?" says the person shooting the video.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you good?" he then asks the man on fire, who shows no signs of agony and makes no apparent effort to put out the flames as he walks down the street.

NYC Fire Wire, a Facebook and Twitter account run by a former city firefighter, posted the video Monday with the caption: "ONLY IN NYC! We do not know who recorded this or any details. Warning: Kinda disturbing."

The FDNY received a 911 call around 5:20 p.m. Sunday reporting "someone on fire" on Halsey between Tompkins and Throop, a department spokesman said.

However, "no patient was there when we arrived," the spokesman said.

DNAinfo crime reporter Murray Weiss also looked into the origin of the video.

Weiss' sources within the FDNY told him that by Monday, fire marshals had tracked down the identity of the man, and went to his home to see if he was okay.

At the home, the victim's family members reportedly told marshals that he had emerged from his bedroom Monday morning covered in burns.

When the man's family asked him "what the hell happened" to him, according to Weiss, he said he had been smoking crack on Halsey the previous afternoon — and had accidentally set himself on fire when he put his cigarette lighter back in his pocket while it was still lit.

An FDNY spokesman told Patch that "following an investigation by FDNY fire marshals, the patient was discovered" on Jan. 30 in the burn unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Weill Cornell Medical Center in Midtown Manhattan.

His injuries are "non life threatening," the spokesman said.

Video and screenshot via NYC Fire Wire/Facebook