Metro

Close call: Cops save family from Rockaway Beach fire after broken door traps them inside

Police rescued five people, including a baby boy and child, who were trapped in a smoky kitchen fire in Rockaway Beach by a jammed apartment door last night, authorities said.

Sgt. John Patterson spotted a 21-year-old man leaning out of a sixth-floor window in the Hammel Houses on Rockaway Beach Boulevard about 7 p.m. Friday. “Help! There’s children inside!” he shouted to Patterson.

Cops from the 100th precinct and Emergency Service Unit were at the housing development to execute a search warrant at a nearby building, authorities said.

The officers went to the sixth-floor apartment, and found the cylinder had broken inside the door lock, trapping a baby, a boy, their mom, and two visitors inside. “They were trapped inside because of the lock,” said ESU Detective Hassan Hamdy, 38, who lives in Suffolk County. “

Det. Hamdy used a hydraulic drill to force the door open with Det. Frank Schomaker. Twelve cops searched the smoke-filled apartment for the fire victims. The blaze had begun as a grease fire in the kitchen, at the front of the residence.

“We got on our hands and knees. We did everything by feel, there was no visibility,” said Det. Hamdy. “We took in a lot of smoke. We had to search the rooms. There was quite a bit of panic. It was very heavy smoke.”

Several cops put out the fire with buckets of water, and others helped the victims escape. “We had to get out real quickly,” Det. Hamdy added. “The mother was carrying the baby.”

A baby boy, 19 months old, and an 8-year-old boy were treated for smoke inhalation at Jamaica Hospital, cops said. Two women, ages 19 and 22, were also treated at the same hospital. The 21-year-old man was also treated at Jamaica for a hand injury and smoke inhalation, police said.

Eleven cops were taken to Long Island Jewish Hospital for smoke inhalation and released, authorities said.