Police get calls like it every hour of every day in Melbourne and the call to Hambleton Street in Middle Park a year ago was no different.

First Constable Emma Quick, normally based at St Kilda Police Station, was filling in on the divisional van for South Melbourne police when the call came through to assist a man threatening self-harm.

The Victoria Police First Constable Emma Quick, left, and Constable Varli Blake at the Southern Metro Region Division 1 Honours and Awards Ceremony. Credit:Penny Stephens

"We went in there not expecting for him to have gas and there was no warning flags for me to stop," she told Fairfax Media.

Leon Firth, 40, had locked himself in his bedroom of his flat with a gas bottle and that gas had spilled out into the lounge room where it reacted with an ignition point as Constable Quick, Constable Varli Blake, Sergeant Tony Scully and firefighters came in.