Mike Peters was headed to his job driving veterans to and from outpatient services when he saw a man engulfed in flames 'from his waist to above his head ' while standing alongside a suburban Rochester , New York , road . Peters stopped , ran past a woman making futile attempts to pat out the fire and tackled the burning man into an icy snowbank , using handfuls of dirty snow to douse the flames . Peters and two other motorists were credited with saving the life of 84-year-old Christopher Flowers after his clothing caught fire from a cigarette he was smoking while driving on Monday morning . Police and fire officials in the town of Gates said Tuesday that Flowers , of Chili , was driving when the multiple shirts he was wearing caught fire from a dropped lit cigarette . Flowers pulled over and got out of his car as flames spread across his clothing . Officials say three passing motorists — Peters and two women — pulled over to help . Peters said one of the women was trying to knock down the flames with her hands , but was n't having any success . ' I scooped the guy up and did an end-zone dive into the snowbank , ' Peters told The Associated Press . Peters said Flowers was wearing several layers of clothing , including two or three flannel shirts and a couple T-Shirts topped by a hooded sweatshirt . The three rescuers removed the smoldering clothing and wrapped him in a blanket that one of the women had in her trunk . Flowers was hospitalized and listed in guarded condition Tuesday with severe burns to his upper body . Peters believed Flowers pulled over and got out of his car to fish the burning cigarette from his multi-layered clothing , only to have Monday 's windy conditions fan the flames to the point they engulfed his entire torso . ' I 've just never seen anything like it , ' said Peters , a 52-year-old former Army helicopter mechanic from Gates . 'It was like newspapers catching on fire . ' Authorities identified the other two rescuers as Deborah Zielinski of Henrietta and Kathy Baleno of Gates .
Christopher Flowers , 84 , was driving in Rochester , New York , Monday . He set his clothes on fire while smoking , pulled over and got out of the car . Three passers-by saw him alight and stopped . They called 911 to report a man with flames burning himself alive. He has severe burns to his upper body but is stable .