AUBURN — Police, firefighters and neighbors battled to extinguish a burning car early Thursday after the vehicle crashed between houses on Gamage Avenue.

Witnesses said the car plowed through a fence before tumbling down an embankment and bursting into flames with a man trapped inside.

“Police were here real fast,” said Steven Campbell, who lives in an apartment near the crash site. “They smashed out the back window and they had their fire extinguishers.”

Other neighbors who rushed from their homes manned a garden hose and tried to subdue flames as rescue crews sought to free the injured man.

Rescuers climbed through the back window to reach the victim. One was able to report that the man had a pulse, but treating him inside the mangled vehicle was difficult.

Fire crews ripped off the doors and roof and were able to free the victim at about 12:30 a.m. He was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, his condition unknown.

One man who lives on Gamage Avenue said he heard what he thought was an explosion just after midnight. His house shook. When he went outside, he found the flaming wreckage two houses down.

Campbell, 30, lives at 77 Gamage Ave., right next to the area where the car crashed. He said he was in bed asleep when he was rattled awake by the impact.

“I thought it had hit the house,” he said.

The identity of the victim was not available Thursday morning. Police cordoned off an area around the crash scene and blocked off a long section of Gamage Avenue as their investigation got under way.

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