FREEPORT

A 65-year-old man is seriously injured but alive today thanks to two motorists who stopped to help when they saw smoke and flames rising from a pickup truck parked in the breakdown lane of Interstate 295 northbound in Freeport on Tuesday morning. State police say the Portland man shot himself three times with a flare gun.

Freeport resident Jayson Forgues, 42, was traveling north on I-295 headed to an appointment when he saw the white pickup truck on the side of the road with smoke and flames coming out of the driver-side window. The former firefighter and paramedic pulled over in front of the truck and didn’t see anyone around it.

“I approached the vehicle using caution and when I got to the driver side window that was open, I saw a gentleman inside,” he said. “I opened the door and dragged him off to the side of the road to get him away from the vehicle in case something happened.”

Forgues said he kept the man sitting up to make sure he could breath and didn’t aspirate on his own blood.

Paul Oleston, 48, of Topsham, also stopped when he saw the fire in the cab. Armed with an extinguisher from his own vehicle, he put out the fire.

Oleston said while in the Navy, he did some firefighting, as well as before his military service. He was aboard a ship for ten years of his military career during which he was part of the on board fire party.

“I just saw there was a fire and I didn’t even hesitate. I opened the door, extinguished the fire and just did what came naturally, I guess,” Oleston said.

Freeport Fire Department was initially dispatched at 9:50 a.m. to the highway near the Brunswick town line for a vehicle fire, said Freeport Fire Chief Darrel Fournier.

When firefighters arrived they noticed the truck was fueled by propane.

There was at least a 100- gallon tank in the bed of the truck. Had it had ignited, “it would have been catastrophic for somebody,” Oleston said.

“Had the vehicle been fully involved in fire, I think that would have created a significant challenge to extinguishing it,” Fournier said.

However, Oleston had kept the fire under control, making firefighters’ jobs easier and the scene safer, Fournier said.

“It goes to show you in this job, you don’t know what you’re going to run into and no call is routine,” Fournier said.

Forgues said when a police officer later told him the truck ran on propane, he realized how serious it would have been if the fire had reached the propane tank.

“My wife and I do have a child on the way — due in June, so that did go through my head,” he said.

He hopes that more people will be willing to help someone else in need.

“I just did what was needed to be done to help someone. It’s just second nature and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again,” said Forgues, whose own firefighting experience began at the age of 16 in Winthrop.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Portland man was being treated at Maine Medical Center for burns and injuries to his head. The case is being investigated as an attempted suicide.

Forgues said he hoped the man is able to recover. If he or someone else hadn’t stopped, the man could have quickly died from smoke inhalation, Forgues said.

“There’s a reason for everything and it wasn’t his time,” Forgues said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com