By Kieran Nicholson
Denver Post
DENVER — Two state troopers who saved a man’s life after a fiery crash were recognized Wednesday by the patrol and the doctor they saved.
Cpl. Timothy McClinchy and Trooper Randy Orton came upon a sport utility vehicle in August that had been rear-ended by a semi that had been going 60 mph along Interstate 70 in Aurora.
The crash trapped 34-year-old Jason Rhodes in the vehicle, which had caught on fire.
McClinchy and Orton risked their lives, going through 15 portable fire extinguishers to keep the flames, as much as possible, off Rhodes.
The troopers each used the extinguisher they had in their cruisers and took extinguishers from truck drivers who were stopped on the highway.
They stayed with Rhodes until firefighters arrived and then continued aid at his side until he was free of the wreckage.
“It was the longest five minutes of my life,” McClinchy recalled at the award ceremony in Golden.
The troopers, who are credited with remaining calm and level-headed, said the moment, although frightening, is the reason they and their colleagues get into law enforcement.
“You can go through an entire career and not go through anything like this,” Orton said.
Col. Mark Trostel, chief of the patrol, said the pair join an elite group of troopers — those who have been recognized with a lifesaving award — who’ve made “lots of sacrifices, lots of risk taken.”
Trostel presented the awards to McClinchy and Orton in one of his last official acts as chief. He retires Friday and will be succeeded by Lt. Col. Jim Wolfinbarger.
Both rescuers received big hugs and slaps on the back from Rhodes, who attended with family and friends.
In the crash and fire, Rhodes received third-degree burns on about 17 percent of his body, including his right arm. He is an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital.
“If they hadn’t kept focusing on me, I would have burned to death,” Rhodes said. “They went far above and beyond everything that could be expected.”
Copyright 2009 Denver Post