burning yourself alive seems a rough way to go, given the waco bunch
had other choices.

but it reminded me of the russian old-believers who, thinking the
antichrist was coming in 1666, grew frantic when Peter the Great 
started westernizing Russia and reforming the Russian Church a few
years later. They locked themselves in their churches and burned
themselves alive by the thousands. 

are there other cases of apocalypse-obsessed christians resorting
to self-imolation? is there a history of precedents?