City firefighters brought a 9-month-old boy to safety from a raging Brooklyn inferno on Wednesday.
Smoke-eater Rhyan Wischertch, of Engine 283, carried infant Gerard DeBellot Jr., dressed in a maroon T-shirt with white stripes and swaddled in a baby blue towel, to awaiting EMS after the 2:59 p.m. blaze.
Other firefighters had shielded the infant from the flames in the three-story building on Church Ave. and E. 48 St. in East Flatbush , according to the FDNY.
The fire began in a front room of the apartment and the infant, his grandmother and two male family members rushed to the back room to escape the flames, family members said.
Neighbor Eric Phipps, who lives above the apartment that burst into flames, tried to help the trapped family.
“I burst open the door and there was fire on the carpet,” Phipps said. “The heat pushed me back.”
Firefighters protected the family in the back room and gave oxygen to them as other smoke-eaters knocked down the blaze, which was under control by 3:30 p.m., the spokesman said.
Kings County Hospital listed the curly-topped babe in serious but stable condition because of his young age, according to the FDNY. The other family members were taken to the same hospital with minor injuries.
A startling call alerted the boy’s mother and father, who were both at work, to the near disaster.
“He’s doing good. They’re still checking him and his grandma out,” said the boy’s father, Gerard DeBellot, 38. “I just want to say thanks to (the firefighters). Without them, this could have been a lot worse.”
Faulty wiring may have sparked the flames, residents said. FDNY marshals were investigating late Wednesday.
