BENTON, Mo. (AP) — Fast action by two southeast Missouri deputies is credited with averting a potential catastrophe for pulling a man threatening suicide from his burning car before he could drive into a fireworks store.

The Southeast Missourian reports that Scott County deputy Tim Hill began pursuit Wednesday night of a suspect who had driven away without paying for gas earlier in the evening.

The suspect stopped at a gas station near the Boomland fireworks store in Benton. Sheriff Rick Walter says the man had doused himself in gasoline and lit the inside of his car on fire.

Hill and deputy James Britton pulled the man from the burning car and dragged him to safety as firefighters extinguished the car before it or a nearby gas tank exploded.