Brooklyn Mom Saves Neighbors From Fire

December 30, 2003 -- A heroic Brooklyn mother yesterday rescued frightened neighbors from an inferno that swept through their apartment building and left 20 people homeless, including kids who lost their Christmas presents in the blaze.

Lourdes Kourani, 32, first led her family to safety from their first-floor apartment as fire took hold in the three-story building at 1347 Putnam Ave. in Bushwick around 11:46 a.m. Then she rushed back to wake up her neighbor and the woman's two children.

Kourani said she knocked on the family's first-floor door to try to wake them, and when that didn't work, she took matters into her own hands.

"I kicked in the door," Kourani said.

Kourani said she also made one last save: her precious macaw.

"I saved the bird last," she said.