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LIMASSOL police officer, Christos Hadjipavlou, who saved a woman, hooked up to a dialysis machine, from her burning home earlier this week was promoted yesterday to Sergeant in a ceremony at police headquarters.

Hadjipavlou, 31, was promoted on the suggestion of Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou.

According to police he was promoted because of his ‘altruistic and self-sacrificing act’ when on Tuesday, during the early hours he was the first on the scene of a fire at a residence that started from a multi-socket adaptor in the kitchen.

Hadjipavlou, despite never having been given orders to go inside the house, found a ladder, climbed up to the first-floor window, broke the glass, felt his way through the smoke and found the 48-year-old woman. He unhooked her from the machine then made his way to the window and hung the woman over his knee with her head facing downwards so she would not inhale the smoke. They then waited for the Fire Services to arrive to lower them from the window.

He suffered first degree burns on his left arm as well as being treated for smoke inhalation. The woman’s husband was also treated for smoke inhalation. Her two sons escaped unharmed.

According to police, this was not the first time Hadjipavlou acted above and beyond the call of duty. He has also pulled a man from a burning truck and carried out first aid on a man who had been bitten by a snake.

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