A POLICE officer with Shatou Police Station risked his life to remove a burning gas tank from an apartment in Futian District on Sunday, sznews.com reported.

A woman living in the apartment, known as Xie, was making dinner in the kitchen when the gas tank suddenly caught fire at around 5 p.m. Xie called the police.

Police officer Luo Mingxing was patrolling in the neighborhood when he was dispatched by the control center to deal with the emergency.

Luo ran into the apartment without a second thought and noticed that the kitchen had many flammable furnishings.

“The gas tank was already on fire and electrical wires were hanging down from the ceiling,” Luo recalled, “I did not think of anything at the time, but I was a little bit scared afterwards.” Since the gas tank was still leaking when Luo entered the room, an explosion could have taken place at any time due to the high concentration of the gas.

“I tried to turn it off, but the rubber gasket around the valve had already melted, so I couldn’t,” he said.

With no other option, Luo carried the burning gas tank from the kitchen to the balcony in his bare hands. Although he was wearing a mask to prevent being choked, Luo’s hands and arms were burned.

Firefighters put out the fire soon after arriving at the scene. “This is my duty and I think any policeman would have made the same decision as I did,” said Luo.

It was not the first time that Luo has helped extinguish a fire. He rushed into a resident’s kitchen to put out a cooking fire in April. (Zhang Qian)