Clean up: Officials responded to the scene in minutes but apparently it was bystanders who were the first to help by taking off their shirts and trying to put the flames out themselves
Javier Soto was visiting the tourist hotspots with his camera snapping shots of the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Then he went to see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the White House.
Finally, returning to the National Mall and, just before 4:30 p.m., he aimed his camera east, toward the Capitol and saw a man pouring gasoline over his body from a canister.
Mr Soto says the man gave the Capitol building a crisp military salute, before igniting the fuel with a lighter
Mr Soto kept shooting as flames engulfed the man.
'I didn't know what to do in that moment,' Mr Soto, 39, said.
The entire sequence of events lasted about a minute as other people arrived and used their clothing to try and smother the flames.
The man died on Friday afternoon. His burns were so severe that he has still not been identified, and authorities will have to use DNA and dental records to trace him.
Police said he had been conscious and breathing when he was airlifted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
Possible motives for the self-immolation are being investigated, but Lieutenant Pamela Smith said she was unaware that he carried any signs or had articulated a cause.
Important place: The incident occurred in full view of the U.S. Capitol
It was also unclear if the man was filming the incident.
Some reports say that two male bystanders initially tried to put the fire out using their own shirts while others put the number of Good Samaritans at closer to five or six people.
'I didn't hear a word from him,' witness Adam Stifel told CNN. 'He had already doused himself with gasoline, I saw his gas can.'
The incident took place near the Air and Space Museum and although his motive is not known the chosen location hints that it was a demonstration.
The Mall is a national park, making it one of the hundreds of such sites across the country that have been closed as a result of the government shutdown.
U.S. Park Police sources told MailOnline that the shutdown didn't play into the rescue.
'There is no indication that the government shutdown impacted the way anyone responded to this. DC Fire/EMS had people on the scene in, literally, three minutes, and a helicopter transport was there minutes later,' the source told MailOnline.
'We are the lead agency in this investigation, but it will be awhile before we give out details to anyone.'
The incident comes one day after a woman was killed by police after she rammed her car into a barricade leading to the White House.
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