PEOPLE OF THE YEAR

      The children showed no lingering impact from the trauma they suffered just 10 months earlier, on the night of Friday, Feb. 4, when their house at 72 Lord Avenue, was engulfed in flames and they were lying unconscious in their second-floor bedroom, overcome by smoke.
      Thanks to a daring rescue by several members of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst and Inwood fire departments, the children are alive and healthy today. The firefighters saved the two Septimus children and two family friends, Robert and Shayna Millstone of Brooklyn, who were staying in the home overnight while the children's parents, Sam and Rachel Septimus, were away.
      The rescue effort was led by LCFD Chief Joseph Montilli, ex-captain Edward Koehler, First Assistant Chief Tony DeLuca, Second Assistant John Heidrich, Capt. Mike Sasso, Lt. Manny Paradiso, ex-chief Kevin McHugh and ex-chief Michael Sperber, as well as firefighter Warren Norman and Deputy Chief William Popeleski, both of the Inwood Fire Department. Risking their own lives, they plucked the four victims from certain death in one of the most daring rescues the Five Towns has ever seen.
      For the rescue of the four people, the firefighters have been named the People of the Year 2000 by the Nassau Herald.
      "We're just overwhelmed by their heroism and forever indebted to them," said Bonnie Septimus, the children's grandmother. "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about the miracle that took place on Lord Avenue."
      She said all four survivors of the fire are "doing just great," thanks to the firefighters' heroic actions.
      Rachel Septimus, the children's mother, described the firefighters who rescued her kids as "just wonderful" and said she could not thank them enough for what they did. "We owe them a lot," she said.
      When the firefighters arrived at 72 Lord Avenue shortly before 11 P.M. on Feb. 4, they quickly learned that four occupants, including two young children, were inside the burning building, and the firefighters sprang into action.      
      "Anytime there are children involved, it becomes more precarious. I didn't think anybody was going to make it, especially the two kids upstairs," said McHugh, who has since been promoted to Lawrence-Cedarhurst fire commissioner. "All the victims were upstairs. It's the most dangerous spot to be, above the fire, because of the heat and the smoke."
      Crawling on the floor to get under the smoke, McHugh felt his way into the children's room and discovered Leora unconscious in her bed. He picked her up and carried her to safety, as he fought through thick smoke and dangerously-close flames.
      "I just grabbed the kid and ran," he said. "I just wanted to get in and then get out with the kid. I didn't know if anybody would make it out of there."
       Paradiso found Zvi, who was then 10 months old, unconscious in his crib and carried him to safety. The children were taken to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, South Shore in Far Rockaway, where they were treated for smoke inhalation and then transferred to the Pediatrics Care Unit of Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where they were treated and released.
      Heidrich, Norman and Popeleski then discovered Ms. Millstone, 24, overcome by smoke on the floor of a bedroom. Once they pulled her from the burning home, she was rushed to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre in respiratory arrest. She was hospitalized for weeks and required rehabilitation after she was released.
Koehler, who is slated to become the new chief of the LCFD on Jan. 1, said when he pulled up to the scene in the fire truck, he saw Mr. Millstone waving frantically from a second-floor window, with one foot already out of the window. Afraid that the man was about to jump, Koehler grabbed a ladder and placed it underneath the window and rescued the man. Mr. Millstone was then taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and was released.
      The fire, determined to be accidental, was caused by food that was left simmering on the kitchen stove for the Sabbath.
      "When we first arrived, it looked like a routine fire," said Koehler. "There was a little bit of smoke and not too much fire. But the fire was starting to make its way up the staircase, with a lot of smoke and heat."
      The LCFD is made up of 100 volunteers from the community and many of them were there that night to fight the blaze. A total of about 30 LCFD firefighters battled the blaze, as well as 45 firefighters from Hewlett, Inwood, Meadowmere Park and Woodmere.
      About a month after the rescue, the Village of Lawrence gave the firefighters a citation for their heroic efforts.
      "We do it to help out the community," said McHugh, 45, who lives in Cedarhurst Park. He said he joined the department in 1973 because his grandfather, father, brother and cousin have been members of the fire department and he said it's in his blood.
      When local fire departments receive an emergency call, the volunteers drop what they are doing and often run from their jobs to save property and, more important, lives in the community.
      "These kinds of rescues don't happen very often," McHugh said of the Feb. 4 blaze. "You don't want to be put in that situation too often, though."
      He said saving lives "is the greatest feeling in the world," but he added that he does not feel like a hero.
      Added Koehler, "It's a great feeling to know that what you did and the result of what you did is appreciated." He has been a police officer with the 101st Precinct in Queens for 14 years and has been a volunteer with LCFD for 20 years.
      "This is what we train for. This is what we prepare 20 years for. It's nice to know that four people are alive today because we did what we were supposed to do," said Koehler, who lives in Lawrence.
       "I always wanted to be a fireman."
      The Septimus family on Dec. 5 presented the firefighters with an antique fire engine with the inscription, "We're forever indebted to the heroic firefighters who placed the lives of others above their own, resulting in the miracle on Lord Avenue."
      Since the fire, the Septimus family has been renting an apartment in Far Rockaway. Their fire-damaged home was renovated and will be sold.
      "The kids are doing great," Bonnie Septimus said. They are as rambunctious and mischievous as any toddlers. "I just hope they don't remember any of this," she said, quickly catching what she was saying.
      She paused, then agreed that she hopes the kids do remember something - the heroic firefighters who put their lives on the line to save them.