March 29, 2004 -- A quick-thinking boy, his fast-moving father and four brave cops saved two families when flames swept their Staten Island house.
Charles Sotiriou, 14, was sitting in his bedroom on 931 Richmond Road at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, talking to a friend on the phone "when I heard something at the door," he told The Post.
"I ran to the doors and I saw the porch was engulfed by fire. I started yelling 'Fire!' until my family ran out," Charles said. "I just took my cell phone and put my sneakers on before I ran out."
His father, Nick Sotiriou, said that after his own family got out of the two-story house, he saw that his upstairs tenants were in danger. The tenants included a 33-year-old man, a 28-year-old woman, and their two daughters, ages 9 and 8.
"When I came outside, the upstairs family was on their patio outside. I told them to stay put, because the fire was on the front of the house," said the 48-year-old Sotiriou.
"And then I took a ladder and I put it alongside the wall for them to come down," he said.
That's when two cops - Mark Semiday and Mark Ramos - happened to drive by on patrol.
They saw the fire, stopped their car and ran to the back where Sotiriou was holding the ladder. The officers, part of Staten Island's anti-crime task force, radioed for backup and were met by officers Jonathan Diaz and Marlo Lancia.
The cops and Sotiriou's wife, Sofia, then helped the family down from the patio, and took them to an ambulance while firefighters arrived to battle the blaze.
Although the frame of the house was saved, much of the inside was gutted.
All four officers and the upstairs family were taken in stable condition to Staten Island University Hospital, where they were treated for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire was unknown, although firefighters said its origin was suspicious, while police said they believed it was electrical in nature.
"I'm just happy that no one got hurt," Sotiriou said.
