#FDNY rescues 4 from Brooklyn blaze

A woman and three children were seriously hurt in a Brooklyn apartment fire Saturday — with one semi-conscious victim so desperate to escape, they were found with their head hanging out of an eighth floor window.

A second person was found unconscious in the burning living room of the home at 180 Wortman Ave., while another was unconscious in a bedroom closet and a fourth person was beneath a mattress in a back room, said 13-year FDNY veteran Lt. George Mueller, who discovered two of the victims.

Authorities had few details on the extent of the injuries but the most severe appeared to be a young girl who looked “absolutely lifeless,” a witness said.

The victims were taken to Brookdale Hospital, leaving the firefighters who rescued them “praying” for their recovery, one rescuer said.

The fire and smoke were so bad there was “zero visibility” inside the apartment, said Mueller, 36.

“You would literally have to be on top [of the victims], face to face” to find them, he added.

It took 60 firefighters less than an hour to quell the flames, and Mueller estimated the rescue itself was “just a few minutes,” but “it felt like forever.”

Firefighter Khalid Lewis, 29, a colleague from Ladder 107 who helped get one person to safety, called the dramatic rescue “emotional.”

“We got in there and we were on our knees, crawling,” he said. “We’re all just hoping for the best, praying for the victims.”

Mueller and Lewis were joined by Firefighter Khalid Lee, 28, who found the person under the mattress.

“This is what we train for. … I just hope that everybody is able to make it home safely,” Lee said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Additional reporting by Dean Balsamini