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Police: Woman claiming to be 'God' set car on fire at gas station

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A woman claiming to be God doused her car with gasoline and lit it on fire at a BP gas station in Daytona Beach, police said.

Employee Clerk Edna Sandrus said Barnes Alexandra Barnes, 29, went behind the counter, grabbed a lighter and then ran out the door.

Surveillance video shows another clerk, Craig Walker, run after Barnes and tussle with her to get the lighter.

"I could smell gas on my hand from wrestling with her," Walker said.

Walker said he realized there was fuel on the back of the car and on the ground, and that's how he realized what she meant when Barnes said, "Don't move, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it."

Barnes grabbed another lighter from her car. She flicked the lighter and the car went up in flames.

"It was just lit up into flames, like 15 different barbeques going on, huge into the sky," said witness Fred Kelley.

"I'm like, 'I got to go inside and cut off the emergency valve or we're all going to be dead,'" Sandrus said.

Larry Romero saw the whole thing from the business next door and said his co-worker jumped into action when Barnes started screaming.

"She said her babies was in the car so he ran back to the car, grabbed, it was actually dogs, grabbed the dogs out the car and ran back to the street, got her because she was sitting in incoming traffic," Romero said.

Jimmy Flynt, of the Daytona Beach Police Department, said Barnes then sat down in the middle of US-92, wanting a car to hit her.

"She said something about she was 'God,'" Flynt said.

A customer rushed to help, pulling Barnes' two dogs from the burning vehicle.

Police said Barnes was taken to Halifax Hospital and will likely be kept for mental evaluation.

The owner of the BP gas station said the only damage to the property was a melted pump hose.