Above and Beyond . . .

Two Irvine police officers saved the life of an unconscious passenger in a van that crashed and caught fire early Tuesday morning, and then arrested the driver on suspicion of felony drunk driving.

Officer Henry Boggs pulled the passenger, Jeromy J. Sherlock, 25, of Artesia, from the vehicle as another officer, Sgt. Jim Potts, fought off flames with a fire extinguisher. Seconds after Boggs removed Sherlock, the entire van was engulfed in flames, police said.

The fire “had just subsided when it burst into flames again,” Potts said. “Had Henry not been able to take charge and get the guy out, he would have burned alive.”

Sherlock was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was reported in stable condition Tuesday afternoon.

The arrested driver, Richard Jerold Durnil Jr., 25, of Artesia, was not injured. Two other passengers were slightly injured.

Police arrived at the scene quickly, mainly because they had been responding to complaints about a disturbance in the audience at a rock concert at the Metropolis Nightclub in Irvine. Police said Durnil had become “belligerent and obnoxious” at the concert.

Shortly after the young men left the nightclub, police said, Durnil failed to turn at a dead-end on Campus Drive at Turtle Rock Drive. The van hit a curb, went airborne and struck the top of several concrete pillars, igniting a fire in the engine.

“When I first got to the scene, there were two victims lying on the ground, and they told me there was another person trapped inside,” Boggs said. “In the beginning, I didn’t sense any danger.”

Boggs, a 13-year member of the police force, was a bit embarrassed about being called a hero.

“It’s just a matter of reacting to something,” he said. “I’m grateful that I reacted the way I should have, and I’m thankful no one else was injured.”

Boggs, 38, said it wasn’t until he viewed a videotape of the incident later that he realized how dangerous the situation was. He said he was relieved he wasn’t hurt.

“When my 9-year-old daughter checked me out this morning, she didn’t even find a singed eyebrow,” he said.