A 40 year-old man set himself on fire in front of the presidential palace on Saturday reportedly due to a quarrel between him and the chairman of the Assiut branch of the state-run Middle Egypt Electrical Distribution.

The fire was quickly put out by security forces present by the president palace and an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital, state news agency MENA reported Saturday.

The man was later identified as Arafa Kamel, who according to his own account, was fired from the electrical company due to problems between him and the chairman of the company. The chairman refused to rehire him after a court ruling that made him eligible for rehire.

His brother in law Abdel-Hafez Mahmoud said that Kamal's action came in frustration after he had his request to be rehired "neglected" by the Complaints Diwan (complaints office).

The Complaints Diwan was set up by president Mohamed Morsi to look into complaints from Egyptian citizens. It officially began operating on 7 July.

"Kamal was facing a trial but he was fired before a ruling was issued, and when he was proven innocent the company's head ignored his request to go back to work," Mahmoud added, without disclosing the legal problem that his brother encountered.

Self-immolation has become a manner of expressing frustration in the Arab world, after a vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire to protest oppression and poverty. This sparked the Tunisian revolution that prevailed on 14 January with the ousting of Zine El-Abdeine Bin Ali and inspired the Arab Spring.

The impact of Bouazizi's action, which went so far as to cause the Tunisian revolt, has inspired many. A number Egyptian citizens set themselves on fire by the Egyptian parliament, for example, in protest of oppression under the Mubarak rule only few days before the January 25 uprising.