The investigation of the death of a man, who burnt himself during the Burning Man festival in Switzerland, is going on. Aaron Joel Mitchell (41) ran into the fire through cordons of Security Officers on saturday night, the Guardian reported.

The tragedy at the celebration

As the sheriff of Pershing county in Nevada Jerry Allen explained, around 50,000 people were at the celebration. The Burning Man counterculture festival follows a tradition to burn a wooden towering 40ft effigy, which symbolizes rebirth. The tradition is held on Saturday night before the Labor Day.

All the festivities finish by Monday.

Burning Man celebration started in San Francisco and is famous for its concerts and entertaining programs. It attracts many people and is very popular, but every year emergency officials get reports about deaths and crime during this festivals. A few people who attended this event also tried to run into the flames as part of their spiritual portion, that is why the organizers had held a human-chain of security officers to prevent any harm.

How did the incident happen?

An American Aaron Joel Mitchell and his wife had a house in Oklahoma but lived in Switzerland. That day he managed to break through the block of security officers and ran into the burning festival’s signature at 10:30 p.m., Fox News reported.The emergency staff had difficulties in rescuing Mitchell because the wooden structure was on fire and fell down.

“Rescuers had to leave him to allow the structure to fall and provide for rescuer safety,” the sheriff’s office explained. The firefighters pulled the man out of the fire and took him to the UC Davis hospital burn center in California.

Nevertheless, on Sunday morning Mitchell died. The doctors stated that the dead had no alcohol in his body, and the police are waiting for a toxicology report.

Now it is unclear if Mitchell killed himself intentionally or was under drug influence. It is also difficult for the investigators to gather information from the eyewitnesses, as festival-goers left the site and returned to their homes, as CBS News reported.“We’re aware this incident has affected not only those who responded immediately to the scene but also those who witnessed it,” Burning Man organizers wrote on their website. They also offered emotional support and said "Now is a time for closeness, contact, and community. Trauma needs processing."
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