A man who set his gasoline-soaked clothes on fire and walked down the aisle of a church during a prayer service died Sunday from his burns, though worshippers tried to save him by dousing the flames. The songs of a children's choir gave way to hysterical screams as worshippers at Friendship Baptist Church noticed Willie J. Boone, 41. Saturday night's musical program was almost over when ``I saw the children looking curious and I looked back'' from the first row, said the Rev. Jimmy L. Mills. ``I saw this young man coming up the middle aisle ablaze of fire.'' ``Most of (the children) went into hysterics,'' he said. ``It was a terrible tragedy.'' The pastor said he and deacons used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames on the man's clothes ``and asked him to go out and sit on the front porch and that's where he went until the police arrived.'' On the porch, Boone said, ``It's all right,'' and collapsed, Mills said. Boone suffered burns over his entire body except the soles of his feet, said patient representative Karen Hall at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. Mills, pastor of the downtown Macon church for 30 years, said Boone gave no clue to his motive and was a stranger to the 40 to 50 people in the church sanctuary.
