NY Daily News

Lt. Peter Cooney and Firefighter Kevin Neenan continued past the burning kitchen and down the smoke-choked hallway, knowing they could become as trapped as the family they hoped to save.

"There's only one way out," Deputy Chief James Daly observed. "And they had no way of knowing if they're coming back out."

The firefighters also knew that moments could make the difference between life and death. These two undeniably brave and noble souls continued on into the blinding blackness, feeling their way into a bedroom.

They broke a window to release some of the smoke. A man and two children were lying on the floor. Cooney took up the smallest figure, a 15-month-old Ruth Joa Balbuena, and carried her to safety. Neenan began pulling 40-year-old Maschay Valdez toward the door.

Cooney made his way back to the bedroom and got the second child, 10-year-old Jonzan Joa Balbuena. Cooney got the boy to safety and hurried back yet again to help Neenan with the man.

Engine 3 under the command of Lt. Roy Cotignola was on the scene to douse the fire, and the extinguisher was exhausted, so Pirrone made his way down the hallway. He turned into a bathroom and discovered a woman, 34-year-old Delkin Balbuena, lying in a partly filled tub.

Firefighter Tom Corrado of Ladder 12 had been assigned to vent the fire from the outside, but he had come running on hearing the radio report of "10-45s" - FDNY code for victims. He helped Pirrone carry out the woman.

Other units had arrived and Firefighter Rich Miranda of Rescue 1 discovered an 8-year-old girl, Nanny Joa Balbuena, who had been seeking refuge with her mother in the tub. Lt. Jason Goldsmith of Ladder 24 discovered a 2-year-old girl, Bet-el Joa Balbuena, under the bathroom sink.

Outside the apartment, firefighters joined EMS paramedics in trying to revive the six victims. Five were pronounced dead on arrival at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan. One, the 10-year-old boy, was still fighting for life and was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Jacobi has a hyperbaric chamber that treats victims of smoke poisoning by supersaturating the blood with oxygen.

Back at the building, residents said they had seen one firefighter go onto his knees in the street to pray as the last of the soot-blackened victims was rushed away in an ambulance. Several of the residents gathered in a circle with a priest later in the morning to offer their own prayers.

The fire marshals had arrived and examined the apartment's smoke detector, which should have been more fail-safe than any supplications to the Almighty. The device had been partly melted by the heat, but the marshals were still quickly able to determine that it had been unplugged from the building's power supply and that the backup battery was missing.

The battery also had been missing from both smoke detectors in a Bronx home where eight kids and an adult died last year. But those detectors had not been wired to the building.

The detector at Saturday's tragedy had been doubly disabled, robbing the family of any chance to escape once the fire blocked the only exit. They apparently awoke only when it was too late. The mind reels at the thought of the terror they must have felt as the mother huddled with two kids in the bathroom and the father struggled toward the window with the other two.

In the afternoon, the 10-year-old was declared brain-dead. A working smoke detector might have saved six. Bravery and prayer had not been able to save any. The one consolation was that the firefighters had done all anybody could, even at the risk of getting trapped themselves.

"They make that decision and go for it," Daly said. "Because that's what we do."

What the rest of us ought to do is make sure we have working smoke detectors. Forget the economy and the election and everything else for a moment and press that test button.

Listen for the alarm that could save your loved ones before it's too late for even the bravest of the brave to rescue them.