BELFAST – A Waldo County deputy has been presented with the Maine Sheriffs’ Association Presidential Valor Award for pulling a woman from a burning car.

The award is given annually to deputies who exemplify valor and a willingness to risk their lives in the line of duty.

Deputy Matt Curtis was selected because he risked his life attempting to save Rinda Lee Neil from her burning car last summer in Jackson. On July 9, 2002, Curtis placed himself at risk when he reached into the flaming vehicle, yanked the steering wheel from the car and pulled the woman from the passenger compartment.

Although Curtis managed to pull the woman to safety, she died of injuries suffered in the accident when she crashed her car into a tree on Bog Road.

“I feel good that I gave her every opportunity that I could,” Curtis said Tuesday. “I’ve talked to a lot of people about that night. I think that anybody else in my situation, in my profession, would have done the same. But you don’t know until you’re put in that position.”

Curtis said he came upon the burning car while searching for a vehicle that had been involved in a minor accident in Belfast that night. The vehicle was registered in Jackson, so Curtis headed in that direction.

Then he saw flames in the woods when he rounded a bend on Bog Road.

Curtis said he quickly realized it was the same car he was looking for and he ran to assist the driver.

“I broke the driver’s side window with my flashlight and tried to put the fire out with my extinguisher,” he recalled. “It was pretty well knocked down, but it was still burning inside the car and I couldn’t reach it. I was trying to get her out of the car but the steering wheel was holding her body back.”

Curtis said that when he ran to his car to radio for assistance, he turned around and saw that the vehicle was once more engulfed in flames.

“I went back and tried to pull her out again. The flames were getting taller and hotter. … I just grabbed hold of the wheel and yarded on it and ripped it out. I grabbed hold of her and dragged her out,” said Curtis.

He said that Neil was “breathing and making noise but I’ve been to other accidents and I could tell she wasn’t in good shape at all. … I just knelt down and told her help was coming.”

Neil, 44, was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she died a few hours later.

“I’m honored that other people would think so highly of me,” said Curtis. “You try your best and unfortunately she didn’t make it. … It was hard, I would have had a much harder time if I had to stay and watch her burn in the car.”