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by KERRY BURKE and MELISSA GRACE
Firefighters saved seven people from a burning building in the Bronx last night, lowering two terrified tenants to safety in daring rope rescues, officials said.
The blaze began in a third-story rear apartment at 851 Bruckner Blvd. at 7:05 p.m. and spread into the hallway connecting five apartments on the floor, officials said.
As they screamed for help, a mother and her three children, ages 3, 5 and 7, were plucked from a third-floor window at the front of the brick building by Firefighter Dennis Quinn, of Ladder 42, officials said. He brought them safely to the ground on an aerial ladder.
Around back, firefighters used the rope technique to rescue two adults.
Two firefighters lowered a colleague with a rope tied around his waist from the roof of the burning structure into two separate apartments through windows. Firefighter Pat McKenna swung into one home where a woman in her 40s was crying for help.
"She was screaming she was going to jump," said McKenna, 45, of Rescue 3. "I held her tight all the way down. I didn't want to lose her." In the other apartment, a frightened man in his 50s was also lowered to safety.
"He was getting ready to give up," said Firefighter Jeff Cool, 37, of Rescue 3. "When I got inside, he was screaming, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die.'"
The firefighter said the man was so scared, he at first resisted Cool's approach.
In both cases, the firefighter on the rope gathered the resident in a bear hug in the apartment, got back to the window and then was lowered three stories to the ground by the men on the roof.
The seventh victim was rescued inside the building. Firefighters climbed an interior staircase and led Maximino Vasquez, the 53-year-old boyfriend of the woman who came down by rope, down to safety through heavy smoke.
"The little kids next door knocked on my door. They yelled, 'Mickey, there is a fire!'" Vasquez said.
He said that prompted his girlfriend, whose name he did not give, to call for help immediately.
"If my girlfriend didn't call 911, we would have both died," he said. "We've been together one year. She's a great girl."
Vasquez said the fire started in his kitchen. The blaze was brought under control by 70 firefighters at 7:32 p.m.
The woman and her three children were taken to Lincoln Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The man rescued by rope and nine firefighters were taken to Jacobi Hospital, all with with minor injuries.
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