Massachusetts Paramedics, Fire Chief in Dramatic Rescue

WINCHESTER -- He does not want to talk about, but Fire Chief John Nash, along with firefighter/paramedics Antonio Salvucci and Greg Quill, saved a woman's life on Sunday.

When talking to Daily Times Chronicle reporter Ellen Knight Monday about the flooding and the incident at the Cross Street underpass Sunday afternoon, Nash left out the detail that he was the first one on the scene and he went straight into the frigid, murky and swirling water that was chest deep on a man more than six-feet tall, and along with Salvucci and Quill, rescued the woman who was up to her neck in water and stuck in her car under the Cross Street bridge.

"Very impressive stuff," said Winchester Health Director Jennifer Murphy, who witnessed the rescue, this morning. "I've never seen anything like it. These guys were excellent. They didn't hesitate for a second. They went straight in and got that woman out of the car. The water was rising and she couldn't swim. They smashed open the rear window to equalize the water level."

Murphy and Nash had been surveying the severely-flooded nearby neighborhood on Brookside Avenue between 2:30 and 3 p.m. when they heard the emergency call on the scanner.

"We were the first on the scene," Murphy said. "Chief Nash saw the woman and walked right into the water to get her. I started to follow by within a minute or two the ambulance arrived and paramedics Salvucci and Quill went right in with the chief. I got out, I knew I had no business being in that water.

"When they got the door open the car sank a little more. They were so efficient. They just did what they had to do," Murphy said.

Murphy questioned how much longer the woman could have lasted in the cold water. "Hypothermia is real concern," she said, adding, "There was also a strong current in the water. They definitely had to struggle to rescue her, but, you know, they did it."

Murphy said Nash downplayed the incident right from the start. "He didn't want to talk about it. It was -- just all business for him."

Murphy said the woman, whose name has not been revealed, said they barriers blocking the underpass were not in place and she drove right into the flooded underpass. She was taken to a hospital and reportedly treated and released. One story is that the barriers had been knocked down by a truck exiting the area, but so far there has been no official report on the accident.

© 2000 Woburn Daily Times Inc.