Melbourne, May 11 (ANI): A woman from Darwin has been hailed as a heroine after she put her own safety and modesty aside to save an apartment building from going up in flames – topless.

Fitness instructor Tash Bennett was sunbaking by the pool of the Alatai Apartments in Darwin city on May 6 when a nearby palm tree caught fire.

“I was just lying there when some ash fell on top of me. I wasn”t really paying attention because I was listening to my iPod,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

Bennett, who raced to reception for help before rushing back to the pool to use the fire hose, only realised that she was topless after she battled the blaze for five minutes and then looked down at herself.

“I was pretty red faced on the day, having to hold myself while running to reception. I was sunbaking. I wasn”t exactly prepared,” she explained.

“But you”ve got to put out the fire before you deal with that,” she stated.

After the blaze, Bennett resumed her sunbaking while she waited for the fire crew to arrive.

Her husband, Daniel McNamee said he was proud of his wife”s quick action in the emergency.

“Apparently the flame was pretty high. It could have taken out the building,” he said.

“She was just lying there thinking, ”it”s getting pretty hot here”.

“It was only after the fire was out that she looked down and realised that she was topless. At one stage she had quite an audience, just having a laugh,” he revealed.

One witness, Johnny McCoy said Bennett had a full audience of residents while she battled the blaze.

“For the record, she was smoking hot herself, but provided all the boys a pretty awesome sight for an otherwise typical Thursday,” he said.

“Once she had the blaze under control, she then got her bikini situation under control and put everything back where it should be,” he added. (ANI)