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by TONY SCLAFANI
Crawling through a tunnel of fire, the city's Bravest rescued a terrified elderly woman and her daughter from a burning Brooklyn apartment yesterday morning.
The blaze blocked the front door of the women's apartment in the Gowanus Houses, leaving 74-year-old Dorothy Bradford and her daughter, Jacqueline, 35, with no way out.
Homing in on the women's screams, FDNY Capt. Robert Pav and Firefighter Terence Brody broke through the door and crawled 70 feet between two burning sofas around 7 a.m.
"The couch on the right was incinerated, and the couch on the left was burning - and we went right through the middle," Pav told the Daily News.
"I didn't want to crawl past it at first, but I went anyway," Brody said hours later.
The Ladder 110 firefighters found the mother and daughter huddled in a dark bedroom, gasping for air next to an open window on Baltic St.
Brody led Jacqueline out to safety, but her mother didn't want to move through the choking smoke. She was afraid her weak legs would give out.
"I can't do it," Bradford moaned, trembling in her nightgown. "I can't hold my breath."
Pav, a 19-year veteran, placed his oxygen mask on the woman's face.
"The smoke was so thick, it was hard for myself to go without a mask," Pav said. "She was terrified. She was just trying to stay by the window."
Minutes later, firefighters doused the flames and a Rescue2 firefighter helped Pav lead Bradford to the hallway.
Bradford and her daughter were taken to Long Island College Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released hours later.
The fire appeared accidental, but it was being investigated, officials said.
With Jonathan Lemire
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