Geoff Rothwell was warned not to go near a burning car by others who feared it would explode.
But when the 49-year-old Tauranga panelbeater heard yelling inside he raced to the wreck and found a 16-year-old boy struggling to get out of the front passenger seat.
"He was saying, 'Help, get me out of here, get me out of here'," Mr Rothwell said.
The car had failed to take a bend and collided with an oncoming four-wheel-drive.
Police say speed was a factor in the crash, which killed the car's driver, Jordan Evan Crockett, 17, and left his 16-year-old friend, Eli Muller, with burns to his face and neck.
Three women and three children in the four-wheel-drive were also injured when the two vehicles burst into flame.
St John Ambulance said the women, aged 47, 45, and 42, and a 9-year-old boy suffered moderate injuries, and two girls, aged 11 and 4, suffered minor injuries.
None was burned badly but police said two of the six remained in intensive care at Tauranga Hospital yesterday.
Mr Rothwell saw the crash while driving into Tauranga along State Highway 2 near Bethlehem at 9.30pm on Tuesday.
He was one of the first on the scene and found others helping to get the six out of the four-wheel-drive, so raced down a bank to where the car had landed.
He said people warned him not to go near the car, which was engulfed in flames at the rear.
"They were all saying, 'It's going to explode. It's going to blow up'."
But he could not ignore the yelling and raced to the wreck, where he found Eli, whom he recognised as a family friend.
He reached inside and unbuckled the boy's seatbelt and pulled him through the window as the fire rapidly spread.
"Just after I dragged him out, the hood lining dropped down and you wouldn't have found him after that. He would've been engulfed."
He said Eli's hair and clothes were on fire and the driver was already dead.
Mr Rothwell was helped by another man, who did not want to be named but who also knew the boys.
Both men said they acted on instinct and downplayed any suggestion they were heroes.
"You don't think about it. You just react and do," Mr Rothwell said.
Said the other man: "We just pulled the young guy out. He was going to die if we didn't. There wasn't really a choice ... I'm just thankful I was able to help. It would be sad if two parents had lost their children."
The man had sprinted to the scene after hearing a "tremendous explosion" from his house about 400m up the road.
Other residents also heard the bang.
Tania Savage, 31, ran from her bedroom on to her deck and could see the four-wheel-drive already on fire. "I'd say it burst into flames on impact."
She said the flames were taller than trees on the bank and spread across the road.
Nick Hutton, 14, said: "At one stage, they were as high as the power poles."
Firefighters arrived minutes later, by which time all seven injured had been helped from the burning vehicles.
Tauranga's chief fire officer Ron Devlin said the two crews who attended could do little but put out the fires.
"Car fires are always tricky because they go like hell," he said.
Police are still investigating the crash but Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, head of Tauranga's strategic traffic unit, said the driver who died had overtaken an acquaintance's car, lost control and ploughed into the eastbound four-wheel-drive in an 80km/h zone.
"This is just another example where speed can have some pretty horrific results," he said.
It was not known if the two cars were racing.
Mr Campion said the injured 16-year-old owed his life to Mr Rothwell and the other man, who were heroes.
State Highway 2 was closed for four hours after the crash.
Pair risk fire to pull teen out of wreck
Geoff Rothwell was told a crashed car was going to explode but he pulled the passenger out anyway. Pictures / Alan Gibson
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