Case series of completed suicides by burning over a 13-year period

Suicide by burning is an extreme act that is uncommon in the United States and throughout the Western world. The characteristics of people who complete such acts are not well understood. To address this issue, we examined the death records of the King County Medical Examiner's Office in Washington State over the 13 years from 1996 to 2009. Twenty-five cases of suicide by burning were identified and used to characterize decedent demographics, circumstances of death, and motivating factors. Compared to other methods of suicide, burning demonstrated a significant overrepresentation of decedents who were women, 40-59 years of age, and Asian/Pacific Islander. They also tended to have previous psychiatric illness and/or substance abuse issues. Self-burning predominantly occurred at the decedent's residence with the intent of suicide given. There was no unifying theme in motivating factors. Together, these data represent the characteristics of people whose death is because of suicide by burning in King County, Washington.