Security guard saves driver from burning dump truck

ATASCOCITA, TX (KTRK) -- A security officer, injured while trying to rescue a woman from a burning truck, is being hailed a hero.

Kevin Taylor was at the right place at the right time Thursday morning. A loud boom alerted him and his colleagues to a fire outside a business meeting on Cathedral Pines Drive in Atascocita.

"I just saw the flames shooting out from behind the trees," Taylor told Eyewitness News.

They found a dump truck on its side on fire. The female driver was trapped inside, yelling for help. Taylor, a commissioned security officer with S.E.A.L. Security Solutions, hopped on, grabbed his baton and started pounding on the window.

"The only thing I thought of was, 'I need to get her out of that truck,'" said Taylor.

In doing so, Taylor suffered second degree burns as well as some deep gashes. His pants, once black, were charred from the fire. The driver, Daiane Mesa Guerrero, 29, got out with fewer injuries. She and her husband were extremely grateful to Taylor, when reached by phone Friday night.

He is reluctant to be called a hero.

"That's not why I did it. I did it because I'm a human being and I would do it again. I hope she has a great life."

The Harris County Sheriff's Office and Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department responded to the crash.