State trooper pulls driver from burning truck

Tpr. Mike Peters of the Massachusetts State Police was driving on Route 28 in Wareham on a November afternoon when he noticed a cloud of smoke nearby.

At first he thought it was a house on fire, but then it came into view: a truck against a tree. Peters, a former firefighter and EMT, instinctively ran toward the scene of the smoking truck with its engine howling and tires spinning.

“I had never seen so much smoke in my life from spinning tires,” said Peters, 42, a K-9 officer and father of five assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office.

Peters was blindly feeling inside the truck when he discovered a man inside. The driver’s body was limp, his foot still on the gas pedal.

Assuming the man had suffered a medical condition, Peters checked for a pulse, but found nothing. He lifted the man from the truck and onto the grass, realizing that every second mattered. Peters began chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth.

For Peters, his reaction was instinctive. “You go right back into training mode. It’s just ingrained in you.”

Then, the man let out a gasp, and Peters detected a faint pulse. Peters began putting out the approaching fires with his K-9’s water supplies, as medical teams arrived on the scene.

Peters later learned that he had saved the life of another former firefighter, retired Plymouth, Mass., Fire Department Capt. Richard Mazalewski, 63, who was later flown to a Boston hospital after suffering a heart attack. Mazalewski returned home after a few days in the hospital, just in time to enjoy Thanksgiving with his family.

And thankful is exactly what Mazalewski and his family were to Peters, whose quick and selfless actions saved a life.

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