On November 18, 1987, an inferno swept through King’s Cross underground station in London – killing 31 people.Although two decades have now passed, memories of the disaster are vivid for Sheppey resident Paul Hale who still lives with the horrors.

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THROUGH acrid billowing black smoke and intense heat, fireman Paul Hale heard a voice crying: "Help me", and went to the person's aid.

He managed to get the person out of the station alive, but to this day has no idea whether it was a man or woman he rescued.

The casualty was so badly burned and disfigured by soot there was no way Paul, of Soho Red Watch, could tell who it was reaching out to him in the inferno.

The tragedy of the four firefighters killed in the Warwickshire blaze two weeks ago brings the memories of that night alive again for the 59-year-old.

His own station officer was numbered among the 31 dead.

A dropped match, smouldering unseen in debris under an escalator, triggered the emergency call that was to change Paul’s life and that of his family forever.

Paul, who lives with his wife Jeanette at Minster, said: "We were the first firefighters to reach the tube. We saw smoke and people running out, and we went in.

"I never knew who it was I saved, I just remember this voice calling over and over again 'help me' as I pulled the person out, and I was just glad someone was alive."

Hours were spent searching in appalling conditions for the dead to bring them to the surface.

Back home on the Island, Jeanette was watching television with their teenage children, Kevin, 16, Nick, 15 and Jackie, 14, when a news flash said there was a fire on the London Underground.

She said: "I knew straight away he was there because it was his watch. I was absolutely terrified for him. Then at midnight the phone rang and all he said was 'I’m okay', and he didn’t come home for two days."

His heroism was rewarded and applauded by citations, medals and awards, and included recognition by the Queen and the then PM Margaret Thatcher, and a Silver Cross from the Scout Association because Paul was a Scout leader on the Island.

But the experienced fireman who lived for his job had already witnessed scenes of graphic horror, such as an arson attack on a Soho night club, claiming 37 lives with incinerated corpses piled round the bar in 1980.

Then, just 18 months after King’s Cross, he was retrieving bodies from the Marchioness disaster when 51 died in the Thames river-boat sinking. But it was King’s Cross that took a huge toll of his health, and he said: “I still have flashbacks to this day.”

He was: "Only doing his job", but two decades ago there was no awareness of the impact events like this could have and eventually Paul, who was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome in 1989, retired from the front line of fire fighting, taking a role in fire prevention before becoming a prison officer on Sheppey.

The 31 dead were not the only casualties of the fire.

"That night our children lost the father they had known, it was dreadful for them," said Jeanette.

Paul is attending a wreath-laying ceremony at King's Cross on Sunday.