Detectives confirmed in a press release issued on December 14 they were still probing the mysterious death of a pensioner who appeared to burst into flames as he walked along a street near to his home in the north London borough of Haringey on September 17.
The victim has been named as John Nolan, a retired construction worker from County Mayo in Ireland, became engulfed in flames a short distance from his home despite the efforts of horrified members of the public who tried to douse them out.
Appeal for information following death of man from fire in #Haringey https://t.co/Tg3RigqPiK pic.twitter.com/TggZ4ULhZA
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) December 15, 2017
Emergency services were called out shortly after 13.00 hrs after a man was reported to be ablaze.
Officers from both the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade arrived quickly at the scene and managed to quickly extinguish the fire.
The 70-year-old man, who was not married, was taken to a specialist hospital by air ambulance but died later from severe burns. No property was damaged as a result of the fire.
A post-mortem examination on 27 September gave the cause of death as severe burns, however, an inquest will open at Barnet Coroner's Court on 13 March 2018.
Detectives are also continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding his death. No arrests have been made and the incident is being treated as unexplained at this time.
The investigating officer, PC Damien Ait-Amer, said: "We have spoken with a number of witnesses who saw Mr Nolan ablaze, but we have yet to establish how the fire started."
The police officer added: "Mr Nolan was a well-liked member of the community and none of our inquiries, so far, have indicated that he had been involved in a dispute of any sort. Nor does any account given by witnesses suggest that he had been in contact with another person at the time of the fire."
