Five family members, including an infant, are in critical condition at NYC hospitals after a fire blazed through their Brooklyn Brownstone on Thanksgiving.
Eight-month-old Josiah Alexis was placed on a ventilator along with his mom, Justine, 20, Justine's brother Jonathan, 22, and her brother-in-law, George DeJesus, at New York Presbyterian Cornell Weill Medical Center in the aftermath of the fire, which sources have said was sparked by someone smoking in bed at the building on President Street in Park Slope.
Little Josiah was brought back to life by firefighter Neil Malone, who performed CPR and pumped the baby's chest with his thumbs. After 5 and a half minutes of no response, Josiah coughed, then gasped.
It all happened around noon on Thursday, after someone tossed a cigarette on a mattress in the third-floor walk-up at 615 President Street in Park Slope. Instead of putting the fire out in the bedroom, someone tried to drag the mattress through other rooms to the bathroom, where they hoped to extinguish the flames, a source told The Post. Instead, the fire spread and an inferno ensued.
The heavy smoke and fire, which trapped the family inside their apartment, prompted one man to jump out of a window, landing on an awning where he sat, bleeding, calling out for help. A neighbor, at first concerned the man was trying to kill himself, heard his cries about a baby inside and called 911.
The fire department arrived 2 minutes and 27 seconds later.