NEIGHBORS SAVE 2 KIDS FROM A BURNING BRONX BUILDING WITH A QUILT!

Two brave little brothers leaped from a burning Bronx building yesterday to the safety of a quilt held taut by good Samaritans, as quick-acting firefighters rescued a third brother from their flame-engulfed apartment.
Horrified passers-by on 730 E. 228th St. in Williamsbridge saw the two boys, Jacob Ellis, 6, and brother Joshua, 7, dangling from their fourth-floor window as smoke poured from their apartment. The youngest, Tommy, 4, was too scared to join them, witnesses said.

"We rushed over, got the blanket and spread it out to catch the kids," said Anthony Long, pastor of the nearby Power of Faith Tabernacle church. The boys hysterically shouted, " 'Help us, help us!' " Long added.

Long and three teens-turned-heroes gripped the corners of the queen-sized quilt and urged the kids to leap, as their panicked father, Thomas, looked on.

"They were screaming as if they were in pain," said Lamar Francis, 15, who helped hold the quilt.

The first kid snagged a phone wire on his way down, somersaulted in the air and landed on the blanket but bounced to the concrete.

The second brother landed clean on the blanket but half-bounced and half-rolled off onto the sidewalk. Luckily, the blanket absorbed most of the force of their falls.

Little Tommy retreated inside but was rescued by firefighters.

The boys' father said that he left his children home alone to provide a DNA sample for a sex-assault investigation. The city's Administration for Children's Services is investigating.


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