Brooklyn Firefighters Save Family From Burning Building (PHOTOS)

An apartment fire in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on a sweltering Sunday afternoon could have turned deadly if not for a last-minute save by FDNY firefighters.

The FDNY responded to the fire in the second story of 631 East 96th Street at about 12:45 pm. on Sunday, August 2.

When firefighters arrived, two adults and five children — a 2-month-old, a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old, all from the same family — were still stuck on the next floor up, reports ABC7.

By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, flames were already roaring out the windows, trapping a young family on the floor above. Rescue crews had two immediate battles on their hands: beat back the flames, and rescue the family. While lives always come first, authorities explained that there was a wall of fire blocking their way.

“They were up there and the smoke was coming out of the window — their heads were out of the window,“ the family’s father, who was at a nearby laundromat when the fire broke out, tells ABC7. He claims the building was not equipped with smoke detectors.

Freelance photographer Lloyd Mitchell, who biked to the scene from his home in Carnarsie, tells Patch that he watched as firefighters entered the building and pulled out the family members one by one.

“The mom was crying, and the girl in the window was crying... It was pretty intense,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell’s full photo set from the scene can be viewed on his Twitter account, @Lloydphoto.

The fire was reported as ”under control” one half-hour later, around 1:15 p.m.

Video footage from ABC7 shows residents’ clothes and other belongings in a pile behind the building — apparently thrown out the window amid the chaos. That pile is now swamped by the water that firefighters used to extinguish the fire.

The New York Red Cross says it’s providing shelter for about 20 people from five different families who were left homeless after flames ripped through the building on Sunday.

Pix11 reports that four people were injured — one seriously — in the fire.

The FDNY has since requested a structural inspection of 631 East 96th Street, due to the fire and an “illegal occupancy in the basement.”

Photo courtesy of Gennaro Alava/Instagram.