Three young police officers are being praised for their bravery after risking their lives to rescue two elderly residents – one who was blind and the other with lung cancer – from a burning retirement village. Emergency services were called to the Uniting Retirement Villiage in Lindfield, in Sydney’s north, about 7.40pm on Sunday. Two elderly residents had been trapped by the blaze, which had broken out in a top-floor unit. Three police officers battled through the smoke and flames to rescue the two residents, identified as 99-year-old Peter Goldman and Gary Marshall, 82, from a balcony. The 99-year-old man and the hero officers, including a female probationary officer, were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital suffering smoke inhalation. All the officers, aged 24, 25 and 30, have since been released from hospital and are continuing to recover at home.
