by BARBARA ROSS
A young firefighter braved heat and smoke to rescue a woman early yesterday when an intense fire tore through her midtown apartment and left her unconscious on her living room floor.
"There was a lot of smoke. I just happened to come across her," Firefighter Michael Columbia, 30, said of Frances Johnson, 54.
It was the first rescue for Columbia, a former police officer from Babylon, L.I., who has 4-1/2 years in the Fire Department.
"It's amazing. You train for that, but when it happens, it's a bit overwhelming," he said outside Ladder 2 on E. 51st St.
Recovering at the burn center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital Cornell, Johnson said she was deeply appreciative of the firefighters' efforts.
"My congratulations to them that they survived," she whispered in an extremely hoarse voice.
Johnson said she didn't remember anything about the 2 a.m. fire, which started in the bedroom, or how she ended up in the living room.
Capt. Jerry Moreau said Columbia would be nominated for a meritorious service award because "he faced intense heat and smoke" when he went into the 11th-floor apartment on E. 54th St. without a hose line.
"He put himself at great personal risk," Moreau said.
Columbia said the firemen from his company and from Engine 65 on W. 43rd St. knew "we were going into something" real because there had been numerous phone calls reporting a fire to 911.
Columbia said he and Capt. Philip Davey and Firefighter Al Barry split up when they got into Johnson's smoke-filled apartment, with Davey and Barry going to the right and Columbia going left.
Realizing that Johnson was unconscious, Columbia said, he and his captain picked her up and brought her to the stairwell, where paramedics were able to revive her.
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