AT about 2am on February 22, 1998, Sergeant Cheung Wing-wah and Police Constables Ma Wai-shing and Woo Kin-yuen of Patrol Sub-unit 2 Western Division responded to a call over their beat radios indicating that dense smoke was pouring out of the basement of a tenement building on First Street.

When they arrived at the scene they found both smoke and fire beginning to creep their way up the five-storey building that was home to a number of families as well as to many single elderly retirees.

Officers from the Patrol Sub-unit immediately began to evacuate the tenants - their task made all the more difficult because most of the residents were sleeping and unaware of the fire. Near the basement, the officers came across an old man and an elderly woman who was too frightened to walk, so they were carried out to safety.

While the initial evacuation was in progress, officers of the Emergency Unit Hong Kong Island arrived at the scene and quickly joined their colleagues.

"When we got to the scene, the fire was very intense and dark clouds of smoke were radiating towards the upper floors of the building," recalled Sergeant Tsang Wai-main of EU HKI. "We immediately set up a temporary command post in a flat opposite the building and joined the evacuation."

EU officers found a scared couple, an old man and his blind wife, huddled on the fourth floor of the building. They promptly carried them down the building's stairs on their backs and out into the street below.

In a concerted effort officers from both formations managed to evacuate about 60 residents from 30 units within the 50-minute rescue operation, with each officer carrying two to three tenants (mostly the elderly and children) down the stairs on their backs.

"All officers at the scene acted quickly and in a spontaneous way extending a helping hand to whoever was in need," said Sergeant Cheung Wing-wah of Western Division's Patrol Sub-unit.