Construction Worker Dead After Accident at Former Home of “Burning Man” Michael Marin

A construction worker died yesterday morning at the still-ruined former mansion of “Burning Man” Michael Marin, who torched the house at 71 Biltmore Estates Drive in July, 2009.

Phoenix police Sergeant Trent Crump tells New Times that a man working for the home’s new owner was crushed by a large, roll-up garage door that he and a co-worker were removing.

See also:
–Burning Man: An Attorney Says He Escaped His Blazing Home Using Scuba Gear; Now He’s Charged with Arson
–Michael Marin Killed Himself With Cyanide, Medical Examiner Confirms

Crump says the garage door was large — possibly RV-sized — and the man was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital.

The identity of the man hasn’t been released, but Crump says he’s in his early 20s.

Marin killed himself in a county courtroom in July, shortly after a jury found him guilty of arson for torching this house. As those who followed the story may recall, Marin escaped the house wearing scuba gear.

Former New Times scribe Paul Rubin — who described Marin as a “Yale Law School-educated attorney, ex-Wall Street trader, high-level executive in Japan, artist and art collector, author, erstwhile philanthropist, small-plane pilot, devotee of the annual Burning Man Festival (irony noted) in Idaho, and, yes, scuba diver” — got Marin’s side of the story, and some insight into Marin’s character just about a month after the blaze.

Marin insisted that he didn’t torch his own place, although the evidence was stacked against him. Aside from the arson investigator’s report, Marin also had a motive to set the place on fire, including the possibility of being foreclosed on in the coming months.

Marin was facing the possibility of prison time after being found guilty of arson of an occupied structure, but popped the cyanide pill within seconds of the verdict being read.