Police found a homeless man dead this morning, and they believe he burned to death while trying to keep himself warm during the ice storm. Nassau police say that they found the man, who hasn't been identified yet, behind a kosher food market at a strip mall in Long Island. And it seems that it was a fatal combination of cleanliness and cooking fuel that did him in.
According to Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, it appears that the man tried to light some cooking-fuel cans to stay warm during the storm; at the same time, he decided to clean himself with liquid body wash that contained alcohol, which resulted in his clothes and body being set on fire. "It appears that he was trying to stay warm and out of the rain and ice. He was badly burned, absolutely," said Smith. Yesterday, police found the body of a man who committed suicide days ago in his car, buried under several feet of snow. And before that, a dog was found completely frozen, encased in a block of ice, in Canada.
