Mom saves 11 in inferno

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BY HUGH SON

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Gisela Ramos stands amid the rubble of her apartment on Montgomery St., Crown Heights. 

The swift thinking of a Crown Heights woman helped avert tragedy early yesterday when the smell of smoke woke her and she warned her family of a fire ripping through their apartment.

Gisela Ramos woke up at 3a.m. yesterday smelling smoke pouring into her bedroom and leaped into action, rousing the 11 family members who were sleeping soundly in her fourth-floor walkup at 377 Montgomery St.

"All I remember is hearing this happen to other people in the news, where the parents escape but the kids die," Ramos, 34, told the Daily News. "I kept thinking, 'No one can die here.'"

Through black smoke she located her children - Brianis, 2, Brianna, 8, and Braulio, 14 - her elderly parents, her mother-in-law and four relatives from Puerto Rico who were staying for the holidays.

"It was so thick you couldn't see anything," Ramos said, adding that in the confusion of the fire - which began in the living room, possibly with faulty electrical wiring, she said - her front door seemed to be jammed.

"I just started screaming to [her husband, also Braulio], find strength where you can" as he tried to open the door, she said.

After getting her relatives out of the door she dialed 911 from the kitchen phone and then banged on the doors of neighbors to wake them, Ramos said.

While no one was hurt in the early morning blaze, the Ramos family lost their Christmas gifts and many other belongings in the living room.

New York Red Cross spokeswoman Annie Lazar praised Ramos for her swift action. "In a situation that's dangerous and traumatic, people don't always stop to think about others. She's really an exemplary person for doing that," Lazar said.

"She's a lifesaver, she's my hero," said her son Braulio, 14. "Without her, none of us would be here. I love her so much for that."

While her family calls her a hero, Ramos credits God. She believes she got a helpful nudge from up above.

"I was in the middle of a very good sleep, and I felt as though someone had tapped my shoulder. [That's when] I turned and smelled smoke," she said. "Had it been a minute later, I would not be here to talk to you."

FDNY officials couldn't comment on the cause of the fire.

Ramos and her family are staying with her sister - who lives in the building - until their landlord finds them a vacant apartment.