by JOHN DOYLE, LORENA MONGELLI and ALEX GINSBERG
Fire ripped through a six-story building in Brooklyn yesterday, leaving scores of residents homeless and critically injuring three — including a 58-year-old man who braved the flames to search for his mentally disabled daughter.
As more than 100 firefighters battled the Thanksgiving Day blaze, which broke out shortly before 6 a.m. on the third floor of 1290 Ocean Ave., panicked residents poured down fire escapes in their pajamas, nightgowns and slippers.
Dupree Corbett, a retired nurse's aide and process server, was overcome by flames and smoke after he ran back into his apartment in search of his daughter, Colleen Elliott.
He was taken to the Staten Island University Hospital Burn Center with burns over 10 percent of his body.
The 16-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, was also critical, with burns and a dislocated hip, after leaping from the family's third-floor window.
A fourth-floor resident, Yasmin Butt, 40, was taken to the Jacobi Burn Center in The Bronx.
Four firefighters were also injured, including Lt. John Galan, 44, of Engine Co. 255, who was being treated at New York Hospital Burn Center for burns to his arm.
The Fire Department said the cause was believed to be a space heater plugged into an overloaded outlet in Corbett's bedroom.
"Smoke was pouring out the third-floor front windows," said neighbor Estell Germain.
"The whole building was on the fire escape. People were screaming. They were very impatient. Firefighters put a ladder on the building and people were coming down."
Corbett and his two daughters, Colleen and Crystal Elliott, 15, formed a human chain and were on the way out their front door when Colleen bolted back inside the apartment.
Corbett raced after her.
Firefighters found him semiconscious near the front door.
"I feel like the most thankful person right now," said the children's mother, Sharon Elliott-Jackson, 41, who was visiting from Naples, Fla. "I could have lost everything today."
Another hero put herself at risk to make sure a neighbor and her baby got down safely.
Maria Machuca, a 36-year-old school safety agent, paused at the fifth-floor window when she saw another resident, Sabrina Jacques, cowering with her 14-month-old son inside her apartment.
"As soon as I saw my family go down the fire escape, I saw she was panicking," Machuca said. "She didn't want to go down."
So Machuca crawled through the window into Jacques' apartment, convincing her that her choice was the fire escape or death.
Machuca carried the baby down as Jacques, 22, followed.
"She saved my life," said Jacques. "I still would have been up there. She saved my baby. I was petrified. Without Maria, I would have been dead."
Quick-thinking cops flagged down an MTA bus and turned it into an ad-hoc shelter.
The Red Cross said some 30 people were forced out of their homes. Many were housed at a local motel.
"I'm going to deal with it," said Charles Jean-Maxene, who was headed to a motel. "There's nothing else I can do. I'm still alive, and that's my Thanksgiving today."
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