FREEPORT — Maine State Police are reporting that a man shot himself three times with a flare gun Tuesday morning in a pickup truck on Interstate 295.

Maine Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland says Daniel Abbott of Portland is being treated at Maine Medical Center for burns and injuries to his head. 

Police say the inside of Abbott’s truck caught fire during after he shot himself with the flare gun.  Jayson Forgues, 42, of Freeport and Paul Oleston, 48, of Topsham stopped on I-295 to help Abbott, according to McCausland.   Forgues used his fire extinguisher to put the fire out in the cab while Oleston helped pull Abbott to safety.

The pickup had been modified to run on propane, and troopers say if the fire reached the propane tank in the truck’s bed, it  likely would have exploded.  

The case is being investigated as an attempted suicide.