# Officer Pulls Victim From Burning Vehicle



## ROBOCOP1982 (Sep 4, 2002)

Teen Recovering In Hospital

POSTED: 5:55 p.m. EST January 29, 2004
UPDATED: 5:57 p.m. EST January 29, 2004

MARSHFIELD, Mass. -- An 18-year-old Marshfield driver was hospitalized in fair condition Thursday after his unconscious body was pulled from his burning car by a Marshfield police officer.
NewsCenter 5's David Boeri reported that a Ford Windstar ran into a tree Wednesday night. A trained EMT and neighbor was first on the scene. 

"I was panicking. I was real nervous to get this kid out. I gave it everything I had, I couldn't get that door open," 

Officer William Meech arrived at the scene after a 16-hour shift. As Romero ran for a fire extinguisher, Meech took action. 
"I tugged on the door, open the door and grabbed the door frame and gave it a good yank, and the door opened right up. I just grabbed the operator by his shoulders under his arms and pulled him out," Meech said. 

"There were flames coming up, right up to the kid's back. The driver side seat had flames," Marshfield Police Sgt. Paul Taber said. 

"I don't know how he got the door open," Romero said. 

The officer dragged the teen from the car. A few minutes later, the car lit up in flames. 

"He was standing there with bloodied hands, burned, smoke inhalation asking us what he could do to help us -- direct traffic, whatever it might be. It was an amazing action," Taber said. "In my best opinion, I'd say 30 seconds and (the teen) would have perished in that fire."




Nice to see some good publicity. Nice!


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## PANACHE (Jan 22, 2004)

Outstanding job hats off to Ofc Meech. I hope the boys took him out on town to debrief with heavy suds


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## Killjoy (Jun 23, 2003)

Good Job! This is the kind of thing we all do every day, it's good to see a positive media spin on our job (when we're not illegally parking)....


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## q5_po (Aug 23, 2002)

Strong work over there!


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## danielc (Oct 18, 2003)

Nice job! It is nice to actually hear about the good that we do out there instead of critisisms when we make a mistake...


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