Rescuers recount what they thought was a car fire, flares on Lincoln Highway. It was much worse

Lauren Stout was driving home in rush hour traffic Thursday evening after dropping her daughter off at a school event when out of the corner of her eye she saw flames.

Her first thought was that it was a car on fire on the side of the road across from one of a string of car dealerships and self-storage businesses in the 940 block of Lincoln Highway.

As she got closer it became clear this wasn’t a car.

“This can’t be what I’m seeing,” Stout thought to herself.

What she saw in the smoke and flames was the outline of a man.

A man holding a gas can.

A man on fire.

Falls Township Police confirmed that Stout was one of three people driving on the highway who stopped and assisted in extinguishing the 49-year-old Falls man before police arrived.

The unidentified man doused himself with gasoline then lit himself on fire on the side of Lincoln Highway shortly after 6 p.m., Falls Lt. Chris Clark said.

When she realized that a person was on fire, Stout immediately pulled over and ran to the man.

Another woman was already with him, rolling him on the ground in an attempt to put out the fire.

‘Sir, you are not fine’

Fairless Hills resident Jessica Dlugasch was nearly home when she saw what she thought were two flares burning on the opposite side of the four-lane highway.

As she got closer, though, she realized that it was a man. His feet were on fire. And the flames were licking up his one leg, Dlugasch said.

She rolled down her window and yelled over at him.

“Sir, do you need help?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine,” he repeated.

“Sir, you are not fine.”

Dlugasch, an ob-gyn triage nurse, parked her car and sprinted across the four lanes as the fire quickly climbed up his shins then his thighs and just below his waist.

She soon learned his clothing was soaked with gasoline and he was still holding the gas can, she said.

Drop the gas can, Dlugasch yelled, then she pushed him on the ground and ordered him to start rolling. When he started rolling toward the highway, Dlugasch pushed him the other way toward a puddle of water.

Stout then jumped in and together they kept rolling him — away from the burning gas can, the gas-covered ground and a van parked near him.

“He kept saying ‘I’m OK. I’m OK. Call my wife,’” Stout said. “His eyes were really wide. It didn’t seem as if he felt any pain, which is unbelievable because he was badly burned.”

Every time they thought it was extinguished, it would light up again, Stout said.

Soon, a third woman joined them. She used her jacket to smother the fire.  Dlugasch got her daughter’s coat and used it to snuff out the burning gas can.

Once the fire was out, Dlugasch then retrieved isolation gowns she kept in her car and covered the man’s charred legs, which appeared to have second- and third-degree burns, she said.

“There was nothing left of his pants at all,” Dlugasch added.

The whole time the man kept repeating that he was OK and to call his wife, both women said.

The only other thing he said was when the police arrived and an officer asked him what was going on, Dlugasch said.

“I just can’t go on anymore,” he replied.

The man was subsequently taken to Saint Mary Medical Center with critical injuries that required him to be flown to Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia for treatment, Clark said. He did not have an update on the man’s condition as of Friday afternoon.

‘The pain he must be feeling. It was definitely a cry for help’

The experience Thursday night has left Stout shaken, but she has no regrets about stopping to help.

“You always think of it like what if it’s my kid, my husband. “I still can’t stop thinking about it, I can’t stop thinking about him. The pain he must be feeling. It was definitely a cry for help.”

Since Thursday night Dlugasch said she has thought about little else but the man on Lincoln Highway, and his response to the police officer's question.

“My heart shattered into 8,000 pieces,” she said.

The experience reminded her of a night in 2015 when driving to work an overnight hospital shift she came upon an accident on I-95. A car flipped several times before coming to a stop on the median near the Newtown Township exit.

Inside were six young people from New Jersey who were headed home after auditioning in Philadelphia for a spot on the TV talent show, “American Idol.” None were wearing seatbelts, police said.

Dlugasch stopped to help, she said. She pulled one boy out of the car, then triaged him and the others until first responders arrived.

One passenger, 20-year-old Natasha Bellott, died in her arms that night.

So when she got home on Thursday night, Dlugasch said she found the Facebook page of the woman that she believes is the man’s wife.

She sent her a direct message with her cellphone number, asking her to give her a call. There was an emergency with her husband.

As of Friday evening,  Dlugasch had not received a reply.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County women save man after he sets himself on fire during rush hour.