London Police are confirming that the man who set himself on fire and died outside the Regional Mental Health Care facility on Highbury Ave. was a patient and calls for an inquest are growing louder.

 

Police say the death is not deemed suspicious, and the Coroner's office is now investigating.  An autopsy is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

 

The identity of the man has not been released and Dr. Rick Mann, Regional Supervising Coroner told AM980 his office will not be releasing the man's name.

 

Wednesday afternoon, St. Joseph's Health Care London released a statement about the incident.

 

The statement, from Vice-President Sandy Whittall, said many patients in the mental health hospital system are voluntary, which means they have access to the grounds of the hospitals.

 

To read the entire statement click here.

 
The hospital has refused repeated requests for an interview, but others are speaking out including Progressive Conservative health critic Christine Elliot who told AM980 who thinks more information should, and ultimately will, be released.

"A careful examination will be necessary to find out exactly what happened, there are still a lot of unanswered questions and I am sure that will be explained in due course.  I can understand there needs to be a lot of sensitivity since family members have to notified that a loved one has passed away." she said.

Trix VanEgmond is with the Canadian Mental Health Association's London branch and she says when it comes to suicides, mandatory inquests would be a good thing.

She says most people who take their own lives have not received the help they clearly need.

"Certainly there is a great deal of stigma that means that people that maybe experiencing really serious distress leading to thoughts of suicide do not reach out for help. They probably don't even think that there's a problem in a sense, I don't mean that they have a lack of insight its just that they feel invisible." VanEgmond said.

She adds questions need to be asked in this case about whether the man had been considered "actively suicidal or homicidal" by workers who'd dealt with him.

The horrific incident happened Tuesday afternoon just after 2 p.m.  A group of soccer players, who were practicing on the pitch at the corner of Oxford and Highbury, tried to douse the flames by pouring water from their water bottles on the man but he was already dead.

 

Two security guards from the facility eventually extinguished the man's body and several Police officers spent hours at the scene behind the facility.

 

It's unclear how old the man was, how he got outside the facility, or how he obtained flammable material.