A suicidal woman doused herself in petrol and set herself alight at a Sainsbury's filling station.
As the flames engulfed her horrified cashiers ran over with bottles of water to try and extinguish the fire, having sold her the jerrycan of petrol only moments earlier.
The 55-year-old from Bath, Somerset, was reported to be suffering from mental health problems, and had rung her sister to tell her of her intentions.
Fire engines and an ambulance were called to the scene. After using a hose to put out the fire, the woman was taken to Royal Infirmary Hospital in Bath with serious burns. She later died.
Sainsbury's store manager Lindsey Roughsedge said she was concentrating on supporting her colleagues involved in the incident.
She said: "This was a terribly sad incident and it has been very traumatic for the colleagues in our petrol filling station who tried desperately to help.
"Our focus now is to help and support colleagues who have been affected in whatever way we can.'
Police are not treating the death as suspicious but are investigating the circumstances of the incident.