NY Daily News

She would not let her children die.

As fire ripped through her Brooklyn apartment, a courageous mom dropped four of her kids - including her 4-week-old twins - from a second-story window onto a blanket below being held by desperate neighbors.

Her 4-year-old daughter still trapped inside the Bensonhurst home, Nabila Nazli hugged the helpless girl and allowed flames to lick her own back until firefighters burst into the burning room and pulled both to safety.

"She would rather die than leave her child there," said an emotional Firefighter Robert Treiland of Ladder 166 who helped rescue the pair. "It's amazing she survived."

Nazli, 38, was listed in critical condition after suffering second-degree burns across most of her body in the 3 a.m. fire. Doctors told her grateful husband, Mohammed Naseer, late yesterday that she and all of her kids would survive.

"I'm thankful to God that they saved the life of my family," said Naseer, 50. "The neighbors, the firefighters, everyone."

As the fast-moving fire tore through the Bay 50th St. apartment building, Nazli herded her five kids into a front bedroom and closed the door behind her - temporarily blocking the flames and buying her family precious minutes, an FDNY official said.

Her face blackened by smoke, Nazli leaned out the window, dangled her infant twins in the cold night air and screamed for help.

"Help my babies!" she yelled as neighbors ran toward the apartment carrying the lifesaving blanket.

Nazli then made the gut-wrenching decision to let go of her "My kids are in here! Take my babies!" she said, dropping them to safety below.

Within moments, two more pajama-clad kids, ages 10 and 5, jumped barefoot onto the stretched-out blanket as the brave mom walked back into the flames to find daughter Shamail.

"We didn't see her for, like, six or seven minutes," said Thomas Gonzalez, 28, who tried to get inside the apartment using a sledgehammer before grabbing part of the blanket to catch the kids.

"I started to fear the worst," Gonzalez said. "I thought she was dead."

But firefighters raced up a ladder to reach the burning bedroom, where they found Nazli unconscious on the floor and Shamail nearby between a platform bed and the wall.

"[Nazli] was face down and totally limp," said Treiland, a 13-year veteran. "She was totally lifeless, it was very scary."

Nazli's 5-year-old daughter, Nimra, was in serious condition last night at Jacobi Medical Center, the same hospital as her mom.

The twins, Mugees and Mubeen, along with Shamail and 10-year-old Umer were in stable condition at Coney Island Hospital.

Fire marshals believe the fire was sparked by electricity, but the exact cause remains under investigation, a FDNY source said.

Hours after the blaze was extinguished, some neighbors still could not believe that all the kids had survived the perilous jump.

"[Umer] had this look of confusion on his face," said Joseph Marsala, 38, remembering that the five men holding the blanket had to repeatedly beg the boy to jump.

"I don't want to jump," Umer responded as he shook his head, witnesses said.

"Then he jumped," said Marsala, who added the family had lived in the apartment for just two months. "I feel relieved that I made a difference."