by AUSTIN FENNER, VERONIKA BELENKAYA and ROBERT F. MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A Brooklyn couple and their grown daughter barely escaped with their lives when a Molotov cocktail was tossed through their second-floor window yesterday, igniting a fire that police say was meant for someone else.
At about the same time, a similar device was thrown through the window one floor below in the same building - 946 E. 96th St. in Canarsie - but it didn't explode.
"We don't believe the family was the intended target," a police source said. "We're looking at others who live in the building."
The live device landed on a couch about 2:20 a.m., sparking the fire and trapping Vivian Lindsay, 66, his wife, Winifred, 59, and their daughter, Tricia, 27. They were taken to Brookdale University Hospital with serious injuries related to smoke inhalation.
After spotting Vivian Lindsay leaning from a back window, Firefighter Jim McNulty of Ladder 170 put a ladder against the back of the brick home and quickly pulled him to safety.
Firefighter Greg Chevalley of Ladder 176 and Lt. Bill Croak of Ladder 170 rescued the two women.
"[Tricia] started screaming because her mother was unconscious," Croak said. "She was worried."
The couple's aunt, Millicent Wright, said the three victims - cousins of the Sinclair family one floor below - were breathing with the aid of respirators late yesterday. Each was listed in stable condition and expected to survive.
"It's terrible, terrible, terrible," Wright said. "I don't know of them having problems with anyone."
Monica Sinclair, 44, was asleep when the dud device came crashing through her window. She woke up to find smoke and firefighters in her home.
Sinclair grabbed her 10-year-old daughter, Jonel, and firefighters led them outside. Sinclair's husband, Basil, 40, was at work in New Jersey at the time and her son, Rohan Kidd, 21, was in a basement apartment.
"I have no idea who would do this," said Basil Sinclair, who rushed back to Brooklyn to find his home in a shambles. "You never know what can happen. I just went to work and left my family here."
Arson and crime scene investigators removed bags of evidence from the house, including both devices. Police haven't released a description of a suspect, but a law enforcement source said investigators believe the person who tossed the Molotov cocktails was on foot rather than in a vehicle.
"I'm stunned," said Kidd, a city bus driver. "We're all blood relatives. We're all hardworking people."
Battalion Chief Richard Alles said the fire could have been much worse. "If the other [device] went off," Alles said, "we had the potential to lose six people."
With Jonathan Lemire
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