6 Utah cops injured helping suicidal man on fire

Six police officers were injured Thursday when they tried to help a man who lit himself on fire inside a gas station convenience store in Kaysville, Utah, near Salt Lake City, officials said.

The Kaysville Police Department said on its Facebook page that officers responded to a report that a man was pouring gasoline on himself in the store bathroom in an attempt to commit suicide. Officers tried to wrest a lighter from the man's hand, but he lit himself on fire, burning himself and four of the officers.

Chief Solomon Oberg said two other officers were treated for smoke inhalation. One of the officers with the worst burns might have fallen in a puddle of gasoline created when the suicidal man filled a Jerry can with fuel from a pump and brought it into the bathroom, he said in a phone interview.

The suicidal man, with severe burn injuries, was taken by helicopter to a hospital, the department said. Oberg said he was in critical condition.

Noman Khan, a spokesman for the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, said four burn victims were brought to the hospital and were in good to critical condition. He said privacy laws prevented him from providing more detail.

Oberg said one officer sustained burns on his back while another sustained arm and face burns. "I saw some of the burns, and they were substantial," he told NBC News Salt Lake City affiliate KSL.