Some firefighters brought hoses into the lessdamaged building and sprayed water from thatstructure into the other razed building, even asit was being demolished late Saturday afternoon.

Around 10:55 p.m. Friday night Cambridge policeLt. Edward Hussey was starting his shift on aprivate security detail at BioRan Co. near CentralSquare when he observed smoke and flames comingfrom the five-story building, located on Mass.Avenue near Douglas Street.

Hussey called police headquarters to report thefire, and several more police officers arrived onthe scene. The initial fire department reactionwas slightly delayed, officers said, becauseCambridge firefighters were busy with anotherfire. "It seemed like an awfully long time beforethey showed up," one officer said.

James A. DeFrancesco, one of the firstCambridge officers to respond to the report, saidthe fire was burning out of control even as hearrived. "The place was fully engulfed with smokeand we could barely see the building," he said.

DeFrancesco and six other officers then formeda human pyramid so that they could gain access tothe burning building's first-floor roof, where onewoman was stranded. The police were able toextricate the woman without injury either to heror the officers.

While officers below worked to enter thebuilding through side entrances, DeFrancesco andanother officer scaled their way up to the thirdfloor. DeFrancesco was then lowered into asecond-floor window, where he had seen two figuresmoving about in the smoke.

"I was lowered onto a second-floor landing butI couldn't see much. So I called for a flashlightand I could make out two figures moving in thesmoke. I called to them and picked them up andpassed them out to the window," DeFrancescorecalled. Because of the officers' efforts, thechildren sustained no injuries in the fire.

"I went back in but I couldn't make it. Thesmoke was too heavy," said DeFrancesco, an 11-yearveteran of the Cambridge police.

Despite the intense heat, officers who wereable to enter the building from the ground floorknocked on scorching hot doors with unprotectedhands, Pasquarello said.

"The officers knocked on the doors with theirbare hands. And some people in the building didn'teven know it was on fire," Pasquarello said. "Thefire spread very quickly."

DeFrancesco was one of three officers who weretaken to Cambridge City Hospital after sufferingsmoke inhalation in the midnight rescue. After avisit from Police Commissioner Perry L. AndersonJr., DeFrancesco was released around 2:30 a.m.

Yet DeFrancesco was modest about his heroicwork and that of his fellow police officers. "Ifany other officer was up there I would expect themto do the same thing for my kids."

Luis Garcia, one of the 40 or 50 American RedCross disaster relief workers giving aid to thosedisplaced by the fire, said Red Cross personnelhad been summoned to the fire from as far away asNew Bedford, Mass., and Nashua, N.H. Firefightershad come from as far away as Quincy andBurlington.

Barbara Platt, another American Red Crossworker, said her staff was working to meet theimmediate needs of the fire victims, includingproviding bed, meals and prescription medications.Workers will try to determine what was lost in theblaze and assess the expense of finding newpermanent shelter for those displaced.

Platt said the American Red Cross has alreadyspent thousands of dollars on the reliefoperation. "And that's just preliminary," shesaid.