A young boy is alive today and will be ringing in the New Year with his family thanks to the quick thinking and actions of three Montville police officers and an apartment complex maintenance worker.

About a week before Thanksgiving, officers Kenny Stuart and Lindsey Michaels, along with Lt. Dave Radford, were the first emergency personnel on the scene of an apartment fire on Jerome Road in Uncasville. They found a 10-year-old boy with his head sticking out of a second-story window. Thick smoke and flames had him trapped inside the apartment.

"It was like the scene of a movie," Radford told Day reporter Johana Vazquez recently. "He had opened a hole in the screen of a window so he could stick his head out. Black smoke was pouring out around him."

The officers climbed to the second floor and tried to enter the apartment, but were prevented from doing so when met by clouds of thick, black smoke. The child would not crawl towards them when they beckoned him. An anonymous maintenance worker, seemingly oblivious of the risks to his own safety, ran into the apartment. Two of the officers pulled a police car close to the building and directly under the window where the child was located.

Stuart and Radford stood on the roof of the cruiser and, with the help of the maintenance worker, were able to pull the child to safety through the window. The child was treated for minor smoke inhalation at Backus Hospital in Norwich.

This team effort certainly is worthy of recognition and congratulations. Without such bravery, quick-thinking and actions, along with some ingenuity, the result could have been much different for the child, who reportedly was home alone and preparing food in the microwave when it caught on fire.

Police conduct has been under a public microscope following too many tragic deaths of civilians. While we agree such scrutiny often is warranted, we also believe that many, many officers remain true to the credo "to protect and serve." These Montville officers certainly are among them.

The public, and this paper, should be as quick to congratulate and recognize extraordinary acts of courage and heroism on the part of police officers, as they are to criticize when police action goes awry.

In the case of the team of Stuart, Radford and Michaels, the November fire was actually the second time in a month that their efforts saved a life. In October, they, along with Sgt. Michael Pierce, were the first to arrive on the scene of a serious motor vehicle accident. They applied pressure to a neck wound on an 18-year-old man who was trapped inside the vehicle, until the fire department arrived and freed the man from the car.

That's quite the record for these officers.

When the Jerome Road incident was recounted by The Day recently, one reader commented that the officers — and we would add the maintenance worker — all deserved a big thank you and a hug. We couldn't agree more.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.