A man doused himself in gasoline and was threatening to set himself on fire from the top of a MARTA bridge Monday morning. But police and firefighters were able to get the man down uninjured through a combination of water and bean bags.
“He was on one of the support beams for the bridge at Inman Park station,” said Alisa Jackson, MARTA spokeswoman.
The unidentified man had climbed a pole near the south bus loop at 1055 DeKalb Ave. NE, and was sitting on top of the bridge when emergency crews arrived at the scene.
Negotiators talked with the man for about an hour and a half before police and firefighters used other tactics to force the man down. The man was holding a bucket of gasoline that he set on fire, but that fire quickly went out, according to Glen Riley, battalion chief for the fire department. Firefighters were prepared for the possibility of the man setting a larger fire, Riley said.
But throwing objects up at that man ultimately helped get the man down from the bridge, Riley said.
“It was a combination of water cannons and bean bags that finally got him down from up there,” Riley said.
The man landed on an airbag and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for evaluation, police said.
“We wanted to make sure that he landed safely, and we hope that our law enforcement will continue to work together through situations like this,” Jackson said.
Train service was not interrupted during the incident, but some buses were re-routed to another area of the station.
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