Firefighters save woman from smoke-filled Brooklyn apartment with seconds to spare

The victim, in her 60s, had collapsed on her side in her bedroom on Thomas Boyland St. in Brownsville when smoke-eaters arrived just after 12:30 p.m.

With neighbors screaming that a woman might be inside the three-story residence, Lt. Chris Ganci and Firefighter Peter Brady turned on their air tanks and sprinted up a rear stairwell, the FDNY said.

As a third firefighter, holding a fire extinguisher, kept the flames at bay, the crew searched the smoky apartment until Brady spotted a television playing in the front bedroom — and heard what he thought was groaning.

The Ladder 174 fireman then discovered the woman, he said.

With Ganci grabbing her arms and Brady carrying her by the legs, the firefighters brought the woman out of the building and onto the sidewalk to receive first aid. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she is expected to make a full recovery.

“A couple more seconds, and she wouldn’t have made it,” Ganci told the Daily News.

Firefighters from Engine 231 hosed down the building and had the flames under control by 1 p.m.

The cause of the blaze was still being investigated Friday night.