Police rescue officer from burning SUV

A frantic rescue effort by several police officers probably saved the life of a Bourne police officer, who was plucked out of the flaming wreck of her sport utility vehicle in Bourne just moments before the vehicle became engulfed yesterday morning, officials said.

Officer Wendy Noyes was driving to work shortly before 8 a.m. when she lost control of her 1995 Ford Explorer and crashed into the wooded median while driving north on Route 28, about 5 miles south of the Bourne Bridge, police said.

At the time, Carver Police Chief Arthur A. Parker Jr. was commuting from Cape Cod to Carver when he saw smoke and was waved down by a civilian standing in the divided highway.

''The fellow ran up . . . and said the car is on fire," Parker said in a phone interview. Parker, who was driving an unmarked cruiser and wearing plainclothes, popped his trunk and told the man to grab a fire extinguisher.

Parker said he ran to the SUV and found a Bourne police detective working to help Noyes, who was trapped. Parker, who is trained as an emergency medical technician, said he got into the back seat of the SUV and held onto Noyes's head to stabilize it in case of a spinal injury.

Inside the SUV, Parker said, he talked with Noyes, whom he knew through mutual friends in the Wellfleet police force where Parker once worked. Parker also knows Noyes's father, Oxford Police Chief Charles K. Noyes.

''I talked to her, told her who I was, and then she said, 'Oh, I know you,' " Parker said.

Meanwhile, two Bourne police officers and two state troopers from the nearby barracks in Bourne, along with at least one civilian, formed a semicircle around the front of the SUV, discharging fire extinguishers in hopes of knocking down the fire, which was in the engine compartment.

Parker said it became apparent in moments that the vehicle was going to be fully ablaze when orange flames appeared in the interior of the passenger compartment. ''It was coming out of the dashboard and under the dash," he said. ''It was time to move. . . . It had to be done. She was in harm's way."

Parker said one officer reclined the driver's seat, and he and other officers pulled Noyes out the rear passenger door. They then carried her through underbrush onto Route 28.

Noyes was rushed to Falmouth Hospital, where a spokesman said yesterday that she was in stable condition.

Parker downplayed the rescue he and the other officers pulled off. ''I know you guys [in the media] hear this all the time -- and she may not agree with it -- but it really wasn't that big of a deal," he said.

It was an example of police officers putting their training and experience to work, he said.

''I'm just glad she's OK," he added. ''Too many stories like this don't have the happiest of endings."

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.