A quick-thinking firefighter who spotted a lost 8-year-old tourist wandering around East Harlem yesterday said the boy wandered away from his family - and walked nearly 60 blocks uptown to look for them.
Jim Brady, 43, a 14-year FDNY veteran with Engine Co. 58, said he spotted Max Sukharev, of Wilton, N.H., as the firefighter and his crew were returning from a run.
"We were backing the rig in when I saw the kid standing on the sidewalk," Brady said. "He just looked disoriented and nervous and out of place."
Brady, who has two kids of his own, said he asked Sukharev: "How come you're not in school?"
"He didn't answer, so I said 'What's the matter, are you lost?' " said Brady.
The firefighter said the boy calmly explained he was staying with his parents at the Park Central Hotel on 54th Street and got lost while they were shopping along Fifth Avenue.
"I told him to come into the firehouse and we'll find your mom and dad," said Brady. "We gave him some water, some soda . . . and a T-shirt."
"I was amazed he knew what hotel he was staying in," said Brady.
Sukharev's dad, Alexis, is president of Auriga Inc., a software-development company based in Amherst, N.H., that also has offices in Moscow.
Police said the family was walking along Fifth Avenue and had stopped outside Trump Tower near 58th Street when Max wandered off.
"I saw the mother. She was very calm," said a building security guard. "There was no panic."
Cops said the boy was reunited with his anxious folks two hours later.
