“They made huge contributions to Hong Kong and their professionalism and self-sacrifice command our greatest respect.”

The grants were given under a financial assistance scheme that helps relatives of those who lose their lives while attempting to save or protect others. The scheme was launched in 2002 and the amount is worked out according to a formular related to the median monthly earnings and age of the deceased. The payment is capped at HK$9 million, with the minimum set at HK$4.5 million.

According to the Civil Service Bureau, a bereaved family could also receive a death payment of 36 months’ final salary, and children may continue to receive education allowances until the age of 19.

Cheung, 30, is survived by his wife and a four-month-old son, while Hui, 37, left a wife and a seven-year-old son.

The government is to hold official funeral services with full honours for the pair this month.

The public are invited to join a vigil in mourning for Cheung at the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom this Saturday evening, while a vigil for Hui will be held in the same location next Thursday evening.

Both vigils are followed by a customary mourning ceremony the next morning.

Senior government officials including Director of Fire Services David Lai Man-hin were slated to lay wreaths during the ceremony.

A hearse will proceed from the parlour to the Amoycan Industrial Centre to allow the public to pay their final tributes. The cortege will then pass through the fire stations where the men last served before going to Gallant Garden, at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery near Fanling in the New Territories, for a burial service.

The government awarded the pair posthumous gold medals for bravery on July 1, which meant a permanent earth burial for the pair.

Firefighters tackling the blaze, one of the longest-running in the city’s history, were hampered by 200 locked storage cubicles that had to be individually broken into so they could get to all floors.