Nine people including a tiny baby were evacuated from a Cupar block of flats after a fire broke out in the stairwell on Saturday night.
A neighbour described how a resident bravely tried to tackle the blaze in Kinloss Park before fleeing to safety with the weeks-old tot in his arms.
The baby, understood to be six weeks old, was given a precautionary check by paramedics but was unharmed.
Police Scotland confirmed the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Fortunately all occupants of the block, including four dogs, escaped to safety.
A spokesman for the force’s Fife division said: “A joint investigation between the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland is ongoing.”
Ross Norry (27), who was evacuated from the block along with wife Fiona, three children and pet dog, told of the drama: “It was Saturday night and alarms are always going off then because it usually means someone is cooking something.
“I thought nothing of it. It was half eight, which is the usual time that people eat, so when the fire alarm went off I ignored it.
“The next thing I noticed was the door. The neighbour was banging it shouting that the block was on fire. The guy on the second floor noticed the fire and tried to tackle it. There’s a baby on the second floor and he had to grab the baby.
“He opened his door and put his jacket over his head, with the baby under it, and went through the smoke. The fire was getting out of hand and the people upstairs were trapped.”
Meanwhile, a family on the top floor a young couple with two boys aged seven and nine said they did not want to talk about their ordeal.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said trained staff spoke to trapped residents on the phone to keep them calm.
A total of five fire engines attended the incident.
A spokesman for SFRS said: “Praise must be given to the control room who kept the two separate residents on the phone and advised them of how to keep themselves safe as well as the operational firefighters who attended this incident and got the residents out safely.
“Thanks to their professionalism and skill our community did not wake up to a tragedy this morning.”
Police officers could yesterday be seen examining the site of the fire on the second floor, where the window to the stairwell was burnt out.