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Queens firefighters traded theory for the real thing yesterday when they broke off a discussion of tactics to save three men from a burning building.
"Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time," smiled John Genna, 31, one of the Engine 298 firefighters in Jamaica who got to the blaze before the alarm even came in.
"We were on the second-floor firehouse talking about procedures, with a window open, when I smelled smoke," Genna said.
"'Cap,' I said, 'I think we got a job,' and off we went."
The crew raced its rig to a three-story building gushing smoke on Hillside Ave., less than two blocks from the firehouse at Hillside and Parsons Blvd.
Some firefighters went in and began searching in the blinding smoke while probationary Firefighter John German, 30, and other comrades struggled to save a man about to jump from a second-floor porch.
"He was scared," German said. "He was ready to go over, but we threw up a ladder and talked him down."
Before the firefighters arrived, a man in his 40s jumped from a second-floor window and was seriously injured.
Firefighter John Hanson, 36, said the rescuers managed to find two other victims, both men in their 40s, unconscious. The three victims were taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in serious condition.
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