See the update at the end of this post identifying the burned man and giving his condition.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 25, 10:13 A.M.: There's already a fake reality show (aren't they all?) called Burning Love (hilarious!) on Yahoo and the E! channel, so a fellow who walked into a Costa Mesa nail salon Sunday afternoon will have to come up with a different title for his personal love story.
Of course, he'll have plenty of time to think about a new one as he recovers in a hospital burn unit from injuries suffered after he doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire for his estranged wife or girlfriend and other onlookers in Creative Nails & Spa at Bristol Street and Paularino Avenue.
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Costa Mesa Fire got the call, but a smart thinker in the salon quickly put the fellow out with a fire extinguisher before rescuers arrived. No one was hurt other than the man, and the business sustained minor damage.
Investigators do not yet know what set the guy off.
UPDATE, MARCH 26, 6:24 P.M.: The man who set himself on fire has been identified as Nam Q. Thieu, 46, of Westminster.
He ignited the flammable liquid he'd poured over himself with a cigarette lighter, according to a statement from Lt. Greg Scott, the Costa Mesa Police spokesman.
Thieu, who suffered third degree burns over 70 percent of his body, is currentiy in oritioai condition at Western State Medical Center of Santa Ana's Burn Unit, Scott added.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.