Copyright of the picture above belongs to TVB

The fire scenes in this series are very realistic and TVB did a fabulous job with that. A lot of people on the net have said that they love Louis and Jade's scenes. I'm a big Louis fan, but I have to admit that I'd rather watch Wong Hei and Esther in the series just because they're so funny together. For her first TVB series, Jade did a pretty good job. The three musketeers (Wong Hei, Ching Ka Loc, and they're other chummy) are pretty funny and have good chemistry. Cheng Zhi Sing plays a good villian. After seeing him in Kindred Spirit, I knew I'd be seeing him again. Wong Hei's mom and him are great together though.

Episodes 1-18

This series starts off with a flashback about how Wong Hei was caught in a fire when he was a kid and a fireman saved his life. From this point on, his dream was to become a fireman so that he could save people. However, his mom didn't want him to become a fireman because of the dangers involved with the job. After many attempts, his mom finally agrees to let him become a fireman. Wong Hei' personality is somewhat nosy and talkative, but he's a good guy.

Louis is the second son of a very wealthy man. His older brother is Cheng Zhi Sing. Cheng Zhi Sing is not really his older brother but his dad's friend's son. Because he's not the real son, Louis' dad has more hopes for Louis and wants to leave him the family business. This makes Cheng very jealous of his younger brother. Louis's younger brother, Bo Bo, is somewhat mentally retarded. Therefore, the dad doesn't like him at all. Also, their mom died because Bo Bo ran out into the street and she ran after him. However, Louis remembered his mom's dying wish: to take care of Bo Bo. Therefore, Louis loves his younger brother very much. Louis' personality is somewhat like a loner. He doesn't like to be bothered by menial things. He loves mountain climbing and this was how he met Jade. Jade was mountain climbing and someone fell so she was holding onto the guy. Louis was part of the mountain climbing team and the fire dept requested help from their club. When Louis first met Jade, he thought she was very much like a guy...physically strong, but really pretty. After Louis has a fight with his dad because of Bo Bo, he leaves home and decides to become a fireman.

Wong Hei and Louis met when he stayed at his friend's apartment, which was next to Wong Hei's. They didn't get off to very good terms because one of Hei's buddies was tricked into buying vitamins for a lot of money by Louis' boss at the health club. They all got into a fight and ended up at the police station. However, Louis later went in and told the truth to help Wong Hei. They met again when they saw each other at the fire dept training school. They were classmates.

In the beginning of the series, Esther's dad just died and her family went bankrupt. She also lost her job. Therefore, she decided to try out to become a firewoman. Her only problem ws that she was scared of heights =) Therefore, she passed her preliminary test by cheating (closing her eyes when they put her on the ladder really high up). Esther's boyfriend was Mark Kwok Yiu Ming. Mark is a cop and he's not really evil or anything but he cheats on his girlfriend. Hei and Mark were boy scouts a long time ago so they are friends. Hei meets Esther through Mark. Later, when she drops her cheat sheet, he helped her out.

At training school, Louis gets very annoyed by Hei and his buddies because they're such a rowdy crowd. "Dai Hing" and "Ah But" are really lazy and they eat and sleep during class. This upsets Louis and in the middle of class, Louis criticizes them. He thinks it's a waste of time to be in class with these kinds of people. Hei gets extremely upset and tells Louis to apologize. Louis responds by saying that if Hei can beat him, then he will apologize. Therefore, the two are always competing. Even though Louis is annoyed, he seems to have a lot of respect for Hei. After some time, Louis begins to accept them and they all become friends. During one incident, the group, along with their trainer "Hu Sir" get trapped in a room with flames burning everywhere. "Hu Sir" rescues all of them and he ends up falling off the building. It is during this moment that Hei realizes "Hu Sir" was the fireman who saved him when he was young. "Hu Sir" ends up in a coma but soon awakens. All promise him that they will do their best to graduate from the firefighting class.

Meanwhile, Esther comes to training school and sees Hei again. Hei gets all chummy and starts to talk to her. However, she tells him to stop being so nosy because people are talking about them. Esther tries really hard at training school to work up to her physique again (heehee I think Esther and Wong Hei are really strong. Seems like Esther can realy do 4 or 5 pull-ups). Later, "Dai Hing" starts to like Esther and it gets really funny =)

Esther and Mark were having problems in their relationship. Mark has an affair with a colleague and Esther's younger sister caught them at the hotel and called her sister over. Esther is very upset and decides to break up with Mark. Her problems with her boyfriend causes her to do worse in training school. Because she is upset and has no one to talk to, she uses chalk to write on the stone near the track. Unknowingly, Wong Hei responds to the messages that she writes with words of encouragement. Mark begs Esther to forgive him and proposes to her. Esther finally gives in. However, she later finds out that he has other girlfriends that he's been sleeping with and Esther and finally given up on him. She decides to start a new life without him and instead, concentrates on passing her physical exams at training school.

It's finally the day of graduation. "Hu Sir" has recovered and shows up at the graduation. Louis and Hei receive the golden hammer awards for excellence in training . "Hu Sir" himself is presented with an award for giving up his life to save others. Their station assignments are passed out and Hei and his two buddies end up working at the same fire station. Louis is transferred to Cheung Chau and ends up working with Jade. Being a fireman in Cheung Chau is rather boring and Louis is upset at first. However, he is happy that he gets more chances to be with Jade. Meanwhile, Hei and his two friends are working at their own firestation which turns out to be quite boring as well. All of the alerts turn out to be false alarms. Hei even begins to lose faith in Lee Zhi Hung ("Loc Sir") who was a legend in training school.

A shooting occurs in the middle of the street and 2 cars were involved in a crash. Hei's fire station is called to the scene and Hei wants to help but Lee Zhi Hung stops them, because the crooks are still at the scene and haven't surrendered yet. Hei recommends using the pipelines under the road to reach the injured people and that's what they do. Lee Zhi Hung himself moves on the scene and all the injured people are rescued just before the explosion. Because of this, Hei decides that Lee Zhi Hung isn't that bad after all.

Lee Zhi Hung has been having problems with his wife, played by Melissa Ng (Jo in Secret of the Heart). She has been getting fed up with his drunk father, Chan Pui and requested a divorce, even though she loved him. Melissa asked him to go with her to Canada, but seeing how poorly his father treated his mother, Lee Zhi Hung couldn't leave his mom behind. Later, when Melissa found out that she was pregnant, Lee Zhi Hung decided that perhaps he should leave his job to go with her because he wanted to be a good father. However, his wife and father got into an argument at the hospital hallway, and she accidentally fell down the steps and had a miscarriage. Lee Zhi Hung got very pissed and almost hit his dad. Instead, he kicks him out of the house.

Meanwhile, Louis finds out that Jade is his brother, Cheng Zhi Sing's, girlfriend. Louis tries to urge Jade to follow her heart and break up with Cheng. However, seeing how well her boyfriend treats her, Jade knows that she can't hurt him. Therefore, she tries to avoid Louis instead. However, Louis relentlessly pursues her and his brother overhears their conversation and knows that Louis is after Jade, so he treats her extra nice. In the end, Cheng Zhi Sing proposes to her for the third time and she finally agrees because she feels so pressured. Louis, upon hearing of their engagement, decides to take some days off from work and enters into a motorcycle race to win the trophy for Jade because its what she's always wanted. However, he falls off his bike during the race and ends up in the hospital. Jade's cousin, GeiGei, takes her to the hospital and urges her to talk to him. In the hospital, Jade sits outside the room, very worried, but refusing to admit her feelings. She leaves the next morning after finding out that Louis is ok. Cheng, meanwhile, had been waiting for Jade outside her house because he suspected that she was at the hospital. In the elevator, he smacked her and she ran back to her house. The next day, Cheng called Jade onto their new yacht and apologized to her. However, she decided that she wanted to postpone their wedding. Cheng got extremely pissed off. Louis comes on a small boat and Cheng starts hitting him. Jade pulls Louis away and they both leave on the boat. Louis' father got extremely upset at Jade for seducing two of her sons. Jade's dad, in a fit of temper, hit Louis' dad and was going to sue him. However, Lee Zhi Hung goes to Louis' dad and begs him not to sue his dad. Louis's dad is touched and decides not to sue him. Jade moves in with Louis and "BoBo" into a new apartment after her brother kicks her out of the house.

Esther passes her exams successfully (I loved the scene where Wong Hei encourages her to do it for herself. Esther has to do 8 pull-ups and she does it. I was really happy for her) Esther has graduated from training school and is transferred to Hei's station. On the first day, she accidentally knocks over the lucky fish tank and many of the other officers dislike her because she's female. Hei helps look after her though. They become good buddies. During one incident, Esther's neighbor's house is on fire and the entire building catches fire. Hei was at their place though and he successfully saves Esther's grandfather. However, Lee Zhi Hung criticizes him by saying that he put a citizen's life in danger by making him climb to the roof. As part of his punishment, Hei was only allowed to deal with the hoses in the future (ie. He's no longer allowed to go into the building to rescue people). The rescue makes Esther become closer friends with Hei and he even helps her repaint her apartment. When she complains about her bad luck, he tells her that he'll let her borrow some of his luck. Esther feels really bad, saying that she's never won anything before. Therefore, Hei brings her all around Hong Kong, trying to find something to win her. However, most places are closed. They end up at the supermarket, buying lots a junk food, so that they can get the game pieces. However, they still didn't win anything. Esther didn't realize that they had one more gamepiece left in her pocket, which was the winning piece. They realized this the next time and ended up winning a car.

Esther moves into "GeiGei's" house because he decides to rent it out. However, Lee San San's aunt was "GeiGei's" aunt's friend and they were going to rent the house to her. After much misunderstanding, Lee San San and Esther become roommates. Lee San San is a mixed Japanese/Chinese girl. She's also Hei's penpal. Her character in the series is very sweet. I guess you'd call it fate, but Hei and Lee San San never ran into each other even though they were so close by a few times.

Episodes 19-24
Wong Hei saw San San out in the street when he was walking with Esther. He was thrilled to find out that she was in HK and that she lived with Esther. Esther found out that she had a tumor but didn't know whether it was benign or malignant. Therefore, she tries to get Wong Hei and San San together because she thinks she's going to die soon. Wong Hei finds out about her tumor and encourages her to go to the doctor again. Luckily, she has a benign tumor and is fine after surgery.

There was a fire in an empty building. However, there were illegal immigrants living in the building. Wong Hei and Louis' firestations were both called to the scene. However, Louis' team never made it to the top because one of his teammates was injured. Because Wong Hei's team did such a great job, 4 of the members received an award.

Wong Hei wrote San San a letter before she went back to Japan telling her that he liked her. San San comes back later and soon starts dating him.

Because of an incident, Wong Hei finds out that Chan Pui is his biological father. Later, his mom sees Chan Pui out in the streets and they have a talk. She tells him that she is very happy now and what's passed is all a part of the past. She also tells him that she thinks of him as a friend now and that she's getting married soon.

Wong Hei's mom finds out that she has a brain tumor and that she's going to die soon. She purposely brushes off her fiance and Hei gets angry at her. Esther runs into Hei's mom at the hospital and finds out that she has a brain tumor. She quickly tells Hei and he's very sad. The scenes where Hei's mom is sick and when she finally dies are very very sad...(brought tears to my eyes because it was so touching). Hei reconciles with his dad and moves in with the family.

Episodes 25-28
Jade secretly helps Louis' father buy an antique in order to improve Louis' relationship with his father. However, his father gets upset at her and has a stroke. Because of this, Louis gets into an argument with Jade and she goes out to a bar and gets drunk. Cheng Zhi Sing sees her there and he rapes her. Jade gets home and feels extremely guilty and doesn't tell Louis. Louis apologizes about their argument and even proposes to her. He had promised his father that he would go back and work for the family company and in return, his dad let him marry Jade.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhi Sing was plotting to take over the company. He let Louis sign some papers which eventually led to the collapse of the company. Louis was having second thoughts about Jade when he found a picture of her in bed with Cheng Zhi Sing from his younger brother's camera. The scene was actually taken when Louis was away on business and Cheng tried to take advantage of Jade. Cheng also told Louis that he slept with his girlfriend.

On the day of the wedding, Louis never showed up. Cheng left a message on Jade's beeper saying that Louis was waiting for her at the church. Therefore, she went to the church and San San followed her there. The others were still searching for Louis. Cheng and Jade got into an argument and she tried to get away from him but he chased her out into the rain. Unknowingly, she dropped her beeper in the church. He knocked her unconscious and brought her to an abandoned house by the mountain. San San was still searching for Jade and got to the house just as Cheng was about to rape her again. San San and Cheng were fighting just as the first of a series of landslides occurred. Cheng, fearing for his life, climbed out of the house. However, San San was still trying to get Jade to wake up. By the time she woke up, another slide pushed even more mud in. San San was able to escape and she tried to pull Jade out. However, another slide occurred just then, knocking San San unconscious outside of the house. When the fire dept and Louis arrived, they found San San but weren't able to save Jade because the mud was still sliding. Before Jade died, she called Louis on the cellular phone and told him that Cheng Zhi Sing raped her and that she didn't want for this to happen. Louis told her that he loved her. In the end, Jade died and Louis placed the ring on her finger when they finally dug her out of the mud.

Episodes 29-35
Louis was really angry at Cheng Zhi Sing and went to the company and punched him. Security arrived and had to drag him off of Cheng Zhi Sing. He ended up at the police station where Hei, Esther, and Hung had to bail him out. They found out what Cheng Zhi Sing did to Jade.

Louis was still bent on revenge and went to look for Cheng one night. Unfortunately, that was the night Cheng killed his assistant and was trying to bury the man. Louis was persistently chasing after Cheng and he got into an accident and was knocked out. Cheng took the opportunity to move the dead body into Louis' car and thus he was framed for murder. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison because the witness, a restaurant owner, was killed and Louis' only evidence, a receipt from dinner, was stolen from his younger brother when he was robbed. San San took care of Louis' dad and brother and visited him in jail. Louis soon gave up on himself.

Lee Zhi Hung was beginning to like Esther but she refused to accept him because she still had feelings for Hei. One night, they were called to a fire scene and Esther's face got burned badly. Despite the fact that Esther looked like this, Hung was still there to support her and he told her he still loved her. Because of this incident, Esther accepted him and she went to Japan to get cosmetic surgery on her face. Hung accompanied her.

Cheng's Zhi Sing's dead assistant's younger brother, Ma Dat Chung-"Ah Fat", found out that Cheng was the culprit behind his brother's death and wanted revenge. He previously worked at the same firestation as Hei. Ma Dat Chung joined the Taiwan mafia because he realized that he needed power in order to kill Cheng.

Hei went back to camp for training because he was soon to be promoted.

Meanwhile, San San is still taking care of Louis' younger brother, "Bobo" and father. "Bobo" saw rthe guy who stole his wallet and the restaurant receipt. However, he had no way of communicating with everyone except through pictures which no one could comprehend. "Bobo" wrote letters to his dead mom which were actually sent to a box at the post office. In order to try to understand "Bobo" better, San San went to the post office to retrieve all of his mail. In the letters, she found some that belonged to Louis. He was writing to Jade.

Hei returns from camp and he went to visit Louis' family. He finally figured out what "Bobo" was trying to say and they found the guy who robbed him and found the receipt. Louis was released from jail. Despite the fact that he was free, he still missed Jade a lot and lost his will for living.

"Hor Sir" (remember Hei's mom's boyfriend?) comes back from England and went to visit Louis. He encouraged him to put his strengths into firefighting and to forget about the past. Louis finally decides to return to his job. He's transferred to Hei's team. Esther also returns to HK and her face is back to normal.

At last, everyone seems happy. Hei moves in with his dad's family. The only problem is that San San has begun to have doubts in her relationship with Hei after she sees how happy Esther and Hei are when they are together. Furthermore, she realized that Louis and Jade's relationship was love. Hers and Hei's was something in-between which even she couldn't decipher. After a lot of thought, San San left HK and told Hei that he loved Esther and not her. Hei started thinking.

Hung's stepmom apparently had psychological problems before. She was always jealous of Hei's mom. Now that Hei moved into the house, her problems were beginning to resurface. She thought Hei and Esther were doing something behind her son's back. In one accident, she fell down the stairs and Hung believed his mom and not his girlfriend. He tried to punch Hei but ended up punching his arm through the window and lost the ability to hold heavy things with his right arm. Therefore, his boss asked him to transfer his position at the firestation but he refused and instead, he quit his job.

Hung found out his mom was truly crazy and she was sent to a mental institute.

Episodes 36-43
Hung was beginning to get physically abusive with Esther, pushing her at times. Hei is very worried about Esther because he's beginning to like her. Hung lies to Esther saying that he has hereditary mental problems. Therefore, Esther is forced to stay by his side even though she wants to break off their relationship. After Esther finds out that he lied to her about his illness, she broke up with him.

San San returns from Japan and she and Hei decide to become friends instead. She helps "Bobo" with his drawing talents. Meanwhile, Ma Dat Chung has returned from Taiwan and is now the mafia leader's godson after saving the guy's life. Therefore, he's no longer afraid of Cheng Zhi Sing and instead, is starting his plot for revenge. Ma Dat Chung is starting to like San San but she rejects him, claiming that she likes Louis. Ma Dat Chung siezes an opportunity and blackmails Cheng Zhi Sing. However, Cheng thinks Louis is the culprit and orders his men to push Louis' dad down a hill. He's brought to the hospital in critical condition. Cheng's partner breaks off their business because of his troubles with Ma Dat Chung. In a fit of desperation, Cheng kidnaps San San after realizing that Ma Dat Chung likes her.

I have to hand it to TVB...the last 5 episodes were the most exciting in the entire series. The fire and explosion scenes were brilliant. All of the actors and actresses did a great job.

A serious fire occurs in a building where everyone is at. San San is hidden in the building, Chin Ka Lok's family is in the building, and a lot of others. Hei's firestation is ordered to the scene but the fire becomes uncontrollable and is rised to a 5th degree fire which is the most serious. Louis finds San San and realizes that he does love her. He also finds Cheng in the building and the 2 start to fight. Later, Louis' left leg is amputated because something fell on it. Cheng though, is saved. Esther is injured from one of the initial explosions. One of the firefighters died on the scene while trying to save someone. It was truly one of the most emotional scenes in BF.

Louis was very upset about his leg and took out his frustrations on San San. Despite Louis' anger, she still stayed by his side until he threatened to harm himself. He forced San San to leave because he knew he could no longer take care of her. One of Hei and Chin Ka Lok's good friend's "Ah But" commits suicide because his wife left him. The whole gang at the firestation rushed to try and save him but they arrived too late. Before he died though, he wrote Louis a letter of encouragement and it was perhaps this letter that made Louis not give up on himself. It was "Ah But's" words that gave Louis the strength to face reality and face life with a new and more optimistic outlook.

The firestation was being investigated for doing a poor job in saving people during the incident. Many citizens were upset at the firestation because more than 30 people died. Hei's boss wanted him to say what he wrote but Hei took the matter into his own hands and gave a very emotional speech about how they had risked their lives and done their best to save those people. In the end, the judge ruled that Hei's team had done the best they could have.

Hung meanwhile had stolen Ma Dat Chung's boss' few million and was on the run. Ma Dat Chung sent men after him. However, Hung shot Ma Dat Chung just as Hei arrived. Hung finally decided to turn himself into the police and the 2 brothers made up. Before this incident Ma Dat Chung framed Cheng Zhi Sing for murder just as Cheng had done to Louis. It's pretty much assumed that he spends the rest of his life in prison. Hung and Ma Dat Chung are sentenced to a few years in prison.

San San comes back from Japan and she and Louis finally get together. Hei and Esther though couldn't be together despite all that they'd been through. Esther leaves for England for 3 years of training.

3 YEARS LATER-Esther comes back and finally, she gets together with Hei. Chin Ka Lok and his wife had fraternal twins. Louis and San San are still together (I'm not sure if they're married though because Chin Ka Lok jokingly calls San San Louis' wife). She and Bobo published a comic book about firefighters. GeiGei and Esther's sister got married. Louis' father has completely recovered and "Bobo's" speech seems to be improving a lot.

I've finally finished typing a summary for this series. I'll admit though, it isn't very well-written and parts of it probably aren't even coherent. As for the series itself, I would just like to express some feelings about it. I really enjoyed BF. There have been comments about BF not being a good series. In some ways I believe that it is an odd series. 43 episodes? Why not just 40 or make it 45 but 43? I also didn't like Cheng Zhi Sing's ending. I think Louis should have been the one to deal with him and not Ma Dat Chung. Like all series, it had its boring parts and its exciting parts. But overall, I really enjoyed it. I dislike TVB for putting Healing Hands and Burning Flames into different award years. Everything that TVB does is always a tactical move. If these 2 series had gone head-to-head, which series would have been the winner and who would've won then the best male and female award? My vote would've gone to BF. Somehow, I felt more for the characters in that series. HH was really good but it was like FOJ-a lot of heehaha. BF was more unique.

12/22/98

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