by MIKE JACCARINO, MICHAEL WHITE and DAVE GOLDINER
An East Harlem family lost their Christmas - but escaped with their lives - when firefighters saved them from a raging fire that erupted on their holiday tree.
The smoky predawn blaze destroyed the presents Shakira Southerland, 26, got for her two kids by saving up her bus fare and walking to school for months.
Queen, 10, won't get her MP3 player, and Zaire, 6, will never see the Hannah Montana doll and a porcelain figure their mom wrapped for them.
But at least the entire family will live to see Christmas Day.
"She told them Santa was going to get them everything they wanted," said Al Power, 44, the kids' grandfather, who also escaped the blaze. "It's up in smoke. They'll be disappointed."
Firefighters raced into the smoke-filled apartment in a housing complex on E. 102nd St. in time to save the family after the lights on their plastic tree erupted in flames.
"Right around Christmas, it does happen," said Lt. Gregory Prial of Ladder 43. "But for the grace of God, it could have been bad."
Charlene Southerland, 48, Shakira's mom, said she opened her bedroom door in the third-floor apartment after 4 a.m. and was turned back by thick smoke and flames.
She and Power went to a window and screamed for help.
"I thought we were going to die," said Charlene Southerland. "It was horrific."
In another room, Shakira, her sister Taccara Taylor and a boyfriend were also struggling to get to a window to escape.
Firefighters arrived to find flames and smoke everywhere - and the screams of desperate victims.
"Everything around in the living room was on fire," Prial said. "The smoke was black and dense."
They dragged some victims through the burning apartment and helped others out the window and down a ladder to safety.
The worst injured was Taylor, 24, who was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in critical condition.
Shakira Southerland said she desperately wanted to make sure her kids got the best for Christmas. The trainee carpenter saved up the $25 transit stipends from her technical school to spend on the presents.
"I feel horrible right now," she said. "Thank God that firefighter was there."
The family angrily blamed the Housing Authority for failing to fix an electrical problem when they moved in in October. A spokesman insisted the problem involved another room and had nothing to do with the fire.
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