Frances Myers walked outside her Windsor Township home Saturday morning, flames crawling up her body, from the backs of her legs to her head.

Nearby, her husband, Mike, 62, was talking with Rod Shoff, who was clearing trees from the 1100 block of Gebhart Road that had fallen in the recent ice storm.

"When she came out of the house ... , the fire was up over the top of her head," Mike Myers said.

Frances Myers, 57, was carrying a yellow bucket that she had just brought inside with her, filled with snow.

Shoff said he could hear Frances Myers yelling, "I'm on fire, I'm on fire!" and as he ran toward her, he yelled, "Drop and roll, drop and roll!"

Mike Myers reached her first.

"I ripped her clothes off with my bare hands," Mike Myers said.

Shoff said he and Mike Myers brought Frances back inside the home, and that shards of her clothes remained around her ankles, still burning.

"I took my hands and starting swatting them, to get it out," he said. "I didn't care if I got burned."

They then called 911.

Mike Myers said he and his wife turned on a propane heater in their home when they lost power about 5 a.m. Wednesday. They also used the heater to melt snow they took from their yard so they could flush their toilets, he said.

The Myers' daughter, Hope Bisker, said she and her four children also live at the house, but left Wednesday afternoon to stay at a hotel.


"They (her parents) had to stay to keep the house warm so the pipes wouldn't freeze," Hope Bisker, 37, said. "We live paycheck-to-paycheck; we don't have money to pay for busted pipes."

Mike Myers said he and his wife also have three dogs that they couldn't take anywhere else.

On Saturday, Frances scooped up the snow, brought it in the house, and set it next to the heater. Then she turned with her backside to the heater,

"She must've gotten a little too close to the heater, and her clothes went up in flames," Bisker said.

Frances Myers was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital's burn center, where as of Sunday, she was in stable condition, Bisker said. Frances suffered burns to her back, buttocks, chest, abdomen and left arm, and has several operations ahead of her, Bisker said.

"She'll be in the hospital for a couple months, they said," she said,

Power to the home was restored Saturday night, Bisker said.

Contact Ted Czech at 717-771-2033.